WHITMAN  AGRICULTURAL  CO, 

—  GENERAL  M A N UFA CTU K EK S  OF — 


ROAD  CCRAPER. 

Warranted  steel, 
polished  bottom, furn. 
shed  with  chain  hale. 


£  end  forCirculars  and  Special  Prices 
for  Machine  Wanted. 

Office  and  Factory,  8th  Stand  Clark  Ave. 

ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 


HORSE  POWER. 

W  e  m  an  u  f acture  two 
sizes  ;;s  above,  with  or 
\vi  tho  ut  increased 
speed.  Also  4,  6,  Sand 
10  horse. 


jst  mill  made, 
man  his  own 


WHITMAN'S  IMPROVED 

SEELEY PATENT 


PERPETUAL  HAY  AND  STRAW  PRESS. 

Received  first  premium  at  N.  Y.  State  Fair,  1SS0, 
'Si  and  '82,  and  grand  gold  medal  in  'S3,  over  Dede- 
rick  and  others.  The  only  perfect  hay  press  made. 
Puts  10 tons  in  car.  Most  simple  and  durable.  A  bale 
every  3  minutes.  Satisfaction  guaranteed.  Three 
bales  to  any  other  press'  two.    Send  for  circluars. 


MONARCH  CORN  AND  C03 
MILL. 

Only  mills  made  vvith  cast 
cast -steel  grinder.  War- 
ranted superior  to  any  in 
use,  for  nil  purposes.  Will 
grind  taster,  run  easier  and 
wear  longer.  Satisfaction 
guaranteed. 


DERBY  SHELLER. 

The  lightest  running  double 
hole  corn  sheilei  in  market 
This  sheller  has    pulley  for 
belt,  also  crank,  and  is  furn- 
ished with  fan  and  feed  table. 


ST.  LOUIS  FEED  AND 
ENCILAGE  GUTTER. 

This  cutter  is  made  in  six 
sizes.  Length  of  cut  change- 
able. Spiral  Knife  and  shear, 
cut.  All  sizes  furnished 
with  safetv  balance  wheel. 


The  best  cider  ?nd 
wine  mill  made. 


COJ^IFLIMIEIEsrTS  OIF1 

JOS.  W.  SHEPPARD, 

SECEETAEY, 

—  -AND  — 

Business  Manager  "Colman's  Rural  World," 


OFFICERS  Or  THE  MISSISSIPftVALLEY  DAIRY  AND  CREAMERY  ASSOCIATION. 


^MISSISSIPPI  l  YULLEY^ 


^SSSOCIllTION.^ 


First  Annual  Meeting, 


-HELD  IN  THE— 


hall  of  the  polytechnic  building, 


ST.  ZDOTTIS,  IMIO. 


S  Jmrnsr  so  attb  31,  mL 


OFFICEES : 


Norman  J.  Colman,  St.  Louis, 
Jos.  W.  Drury,  Waterloo,  Ills., 
Jos.  E.  Miller,  Belleville,  Ills., 
Jos.  W.  Sheppard,  St.  Louis, 
W.  N.  Tivy,  St.  Louis,- 


President. 

First  Vice-President. 
Second  'Vice-President. 
Secretary. 
Treasurer. 


ST.  LOUIS,  MO.: 
Barker  &  Rohlfing,  Prs.,  120  N.  Third  Street, 
1884. 


^INTRODUCTIONS 


|iN  Saturday,  October  6,  1883,  a  number  of  gentlemen,  interested  in 
dill  Dairy  and  Creamery  interests,  assembled  in  the  office  of  the  Rural 
Alt    World  on  the  St.  Louis  Fair  Grounds,  to  discuss  the  subject  of  an 

y\J  organization  pertaining  to  these  interests.  At  that  meeting  the  Mis- 
J  sissippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association  was  organized,  the 
officers  elected,  and  a  constitution  adopted.  It  was  also  decided  that 
the  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Association  should  be  held  in  St.  Louis,  on 
the  30th  and  31st  of  January,  1884,  of  which  the  following  pages  bear 
evidence. 

Whatever  were  the  sanguine  expectation  of  the  writer,  as  to  the  success 
likely  to  attend  the  first  meeting,  they  were  far  below  what  reality  gave 
cause  for  congratulation  over,  as  the  meetings  were  attended,  not  only  by 
an  unexpectedly  large  number  of  delegates  and  their  friends,  but  the  earnest- 
ness that  pervaded  the  whole  proceedings,  show  that  the  Association  had 
been  formed  in  a  most  opportune  time  to  be  the  acceptable  medium 
through  which  knowledge  could  be  diffused  to  the  great  advantage  of  those 
attending. 

It  was  demonstrated  at  these  meetings  that  the  Creameries  situated  in 
the  more  northern  latitudes  do  cease  to  make  butter  when  the  highest 
prices  are  being  paid  for  their  product.  They  being  forced  to  close  down 
by  reason  of  the  severity  of  the  winter  season. 

It  was  also  shown  that  Creameries  situated  in  these  more  southern  lati- 
tudes can,  and  do  make  butter  all  the  winter,  in  fact  all  the  year  round, 
which  forces  the  conclusion  that  butter  making  in  this  southern 
climate  is  a  more  profitable  business  than  in  Northern  Iowa,  Illinois  or 
Wisconsin,  where,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  best  grades  of  butter  are  made 
and  the  highest  prices  realized  as  a  whole. 

This  one  fact  borne  in  mind  covers  a  multitude  of  arguments,  and  no 
doubt  will  be  found  to  be  the  greatest  inducement  to  the  farmers  situated 
in  this  parallel,  to  first  investigate,  and  then  establish  Creameries  in  this 
climate  where  neither  the  extremes  of  heat  or  cold  last  long  enough  to 
cripple  or  even  temporarily  suspend  the  working  of  the  enterprise. 

The  writer  also  desires  to  call  the  attention  of  all  those  interested  in 
the  making  of  Butter  and  Cheese  in  this  latitude  to  the  fact,  that  the 
Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association  propose,  if  possible,  to 
form  a  Butter  and  Cheese  Board  of  Trade  in  St.  Louis,  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Board  in  Elgin,  Illinois,  whereby  the  product  of  the  factories  now  built, 
or  being  built,  in  this  and  adjoining  territory,  will  find  an  easy  and  satis- 
factory outlet. 

This  subject  will  be  investigated  by  the  writer  during  the  coming  summer 
and  fall,  who  hopes  that  by  the  time  of  the  next  meeting  of  the  Association, 
in  January,  1885,  to  be  able  to  present  for  your  consideration  a  feasible  pro- 
gramme for  you  to  act  upon. 

The  idea  is  here  presented  as  a  subject  for  the  mature  consideration  of. 
all  concerned,  and  the  time  between  now  and  the  next  meeting  allows  of 
the  subject  being  well  digested  by  the  reader  as  it  will  be  by, 

Yours  respectfully, 

JOS.  W.  SHEPPARD. 

SECRETAR2'. 

Address:    600  OLIVE  STREET,  ST.  LOUIS,  310.} 
All  inquiries  will  receive  prompt  attention.  j 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting 

— OF  THE — 

MISSISSIPPI  V>LLEY  DAIRY  AND  CREAMERY  ASS'N, 

— HELD  IN  THE — 

Hall  of  the  POLYTECHNIC  BUILDING, 
ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 

Wednesday  and  Thursday,  January  30  and  31,  1884. 


The  meeting  was  called  to  order  at  11  a.  m.,  by  the  President, 
Norman  J.  Colman,  and  the  proceedings  opened  by  the  Secretary, 
J.  W.  Sheppard,  reading  the  following  Constitution,  which  had 
been  adopted  at  a  former  meeting  held  in  the  office  of  the  Rural 
World,  at  the  St.  Louis  Fair  Grounds,  on  the  6th  day  of  October, 
1883,  when  this  Association  was  formed. 

Constitution. 

Article  i.  The  name  of  this  Association  shall  be  the  Miss- 
issippi Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 

Art.  2.  Its  objects  shall  be  to  give  aid  and  encouragement  to 
the  Dairy  and  Creamery  interest  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  by  hold- 
ing meetings  for  the  discussion  of  all  questions  pertaining  to  these 
interests  and  for  the  exhibition  of  the  products  of  the  dairy  and  of 
such  apparatus  as  may  be  used  in  such  establishments. 

Art.  3.  The  officers  of  this  Association  shall  consist  of  a 
President,  two  Vice-Presidents,  a  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  who 
shall  be  elected  and  serve  for  one  year  and  until  their  successors  are 
duly  elected  and  qualified. 

Art.  4.  The  annual  meetings  of  the  Association  shall  be  held 
in  January  of  each  year,  at  such  time  and  place  as  the  Association 
may  designate,  or  it  may  confer  the  designation  of  time  and  place 
upon  the  officers  of  the  society.  The  duties  of  the  officers  shall  be 
such  as  usually  appertain  to  such  officers. 


hn.  A>  0- 


4 


Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


Art.  5.  The  officers  elected  at  this  meeting  shall  hold  their 
offices  only  until  the  annual  meeting  in  January  next. 

Art.  6.  Any  person  interested  in  or  in  sympathy  with  the 
objects  of  this  organization  may  become  a  member  by  payment  of 
one  dollar. 

Art.  7.  This  Constitution  may  be  amended  at  any  regular 
meeting  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  members  present. 

The  President  then  requested  the  delegates  to  hand  in  their 
names  and  credentials  to  the  Secretary.  The  following  is  a  full  list 
of  the  members : 

Delegates. 
Missouri. 


Norman  J.  Colman,  St.  Louis. 

J.  W.  Sheppard,  St.  Louis. 

W.  N.  Tivy,  St.  Louis. 

B.  S.  Edmonds,  Pattonville. 

J.  F.  Ewing,  St.  Louis. 

E.  T.  Hollister,  St0.  Louis. 

D.  B.  Kellogg,  Keytesville. 

J.  S.  Evans,  Caledonia. 

W.  T.  Humphrey,  Lewiston. 

J.  A.  Peirsol,  Monroe  City. 

Hon.  J.  H.  Morse,  Morse's  Mills. 

Daniel  Douglass,  Pevely. 

H.  W.  Douglass,  Pevely. 

T.  C.  Campbell,  Manchester. 

Dr.  H.  B.  Butts,  Louisiana. 

G.  E.  Wetzel,  St.  Louis. 

J.  B.  Thompson,  La  Plata. 


Nathan  Williams,  Kidder. 
Charles  Cabanne,  St.  Louis. 
Festus  J.  Wade,  St.  Louis. 
C.  A.  Adams,  Chillicothe. 
T.  J.  Powell,  New  Florence. 
John  Purcell,  St.  Louis. 
Pi  of.  J.  W.  Sanborn,  Columbia. 
Bowman  &  Co.,  St.  Louis. 
Geo.  P.  Strong,  St.  Louis. 
W.  N.  Morrison,  St.  Louis. 
Thos.  P.  Miller,  St.  Louis. 
Edwin  H.  Jeffries,  St.  Clair. 
Hudson  Bros.,  St.  Louis. 
Hoffman  Bros.,  St.  Louis. 
Hartmann  &  Co.  St.  Louis, 
J.  M.  Powell,  La  Plata. 
J.  A.  Sturges,  Bushberg. 


Illinois. 


Jos.  W.  Drury,  Waterloo. 
Jos.  E.  Miller,  Belleville. 
H.  H.  Palmer,  Rockford. 
J.  M.  Brent,  Chicago. 

F.  V.  Perry,  Rockford. 

C.  P.  Willard  &  Co.,  Chicago. 
S.  T.  Hopson,  Girard. 
J.  C.  Ritchie,  Marissa. 
J.  J.  Whitmore,  Godfrey. 
J.  Y.  Sawyer,  Jr.,  Godfrey. 
J.  M.  Scott,  Belleville. 
Davis  &  Rankin,  Chicago. 
A.  H.  Wing,  Vandalia. 
J.  A.  Vance,  Troy. 

G.  W.  Hilliard,  Brighton. 


J.  P.  Vissering,  Wellville. 
D.  W.  Bryant,  Waterloo. 
W.  W.  Barmsback,  Troy. 
Jacob  Eisenmayer,  Mascoutah. 
H.  C.  Santeeman,  Edwardsville. 
James  Morrow,  Sparta. 
S.  W.  McKelvey,  Sparta. 

C.  W.  Sibley,  Pana. 

M.  R.  Trumbovver,  Sterling. 
Frank  K.  Gillespie,  Edwardsville. 
J.  W.  Stout,  Chicago. 
J.  C.  Perkins,  Sparta. 

D.  J.  Kirkman,  Winchester. 
Robert  Bryce,  Butler. 

L.  D.  Smith  &  Bros.,  Shipman. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  5 


Kansas. 

James  Hirst,  Barclay.  R.  C.  Brant,  Hiawatha. 

Isaac  S.  Hampton,  Barclay. 

New  York. 

George  Addy,  New  York  City.    Col.  T.  D.  Curtis,  Syracuse. 

Ohio. 

I.  N.  Poe,  Toledo.  J.  W.  Stillwell  &  Co.,  Troy. 

Wisconsin. 

D.  W.  Curtis,  Fort  Atkinson.  Hon.  H.  Smith,  Sheboygan  Falls. 
I.  H.  Wanzer,  Darlington. 

Iowa. 

Gov.  H.  G.  Gue,  Des  Moines. 

The  Chair  appointed  the  following  committee  on  arrangement 
and  programme:  Messrs.  Miller,  Wirst,  Morse,  Hobson,  Prof. 
Sanborn  and  Hon.  Hiram  Smith. 

Mr.  Jas.  S.  Evans,  of  Caledonia,  Washington  Co.,  Mo.,  was 
the  first  to  address  the  meeting  after  it  was  called  to  order  by  Pres- 
ident Colman.  He  called  the  attention  of  the  members  of  the 
Association  to  an  inviting  field  for  a  practical  Dairyman  and  Cheese- 
maker.  They  had  all  the  facilities,  a  well  equipped  Creamery,  a 
tract  of  land  7  by  14  miles,  a  natural  blue  grass  region,  watered  by 
many  never  failing  springs,  an  abundance  of  Cream  and  Milk  in  the 
vicinity  that  was  regularly  brought  to  the  Creamery.  The  company 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  failed  for  want  of  the  practical  knowl- 
edge necessary  to  couduct  such  an  establishment.  Related  among 
other  mistakes,  the  first  batch  of  cheese  turned  out  found  them  with- 
out any  boxes  ;  had  to  send  to  Ohio  for  them,  and  when  they  were 
finally  received  the  cheese  was  spoiled.  The  expensive  luxury  they 
had  imported  from  Ohio  to  conduct  the  business,  proved  too  much 
of  a  failure  to  be  retained,  and  now  they  are  ready'to  offer  the  most 
inviting  position  to  the  right  party,  etc.  The  beautiful  tract  of  land 
could  not,  he  said,  be  duplicated  in  the  State  ;  and  to  this  might  be 
added  the  interesting  information  that  right  there,  too,  there  was 
100  of  the  finest  young  women  that  ever  walked  on  God's  green 
earth,  and  they  all  wanted  to  marry. 

The  President  said  he  had  attended  the  National  Butter  and 
Egg  Association's  meeting  at  Cincinnati  last  year,  and,  judging 
from  the  representation  present  at  this  meeting,  it  promised  to  be  a 
much  more  important  one  and  liable  to  achieve  more  practical  results. 
The  meeting  then  took  a  recess  until  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 


6 


Eeport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


AFTERNOON  SESSION,  JANUARY  30, 


On  re-assembling  an  address  of  welcome  was  made  by  Mr.  C. 
W.  Barstow,  First  Vice-President  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  St. 
Louis,  in  the  absence  of  the  President,  who  was  to  have  made  it, 
but  was  prevented  by  prior  engagements.  Mr.  Barstow  was  short 
in  his  remarks,  but  earnestly  and  heartily  welcomed  the  members 
of  the  Association  to  the  city  and  to  the  freedom  of  the  Merchants' 
Exchange  whilst  here.  Though  engaged  in  an  entirely  different 
department  of  business,  he  fully  appreciated  in  this,  as  in  all  others, 
the  necessity  of  co-operation  and  united  effort,  and  hoped  that  the 
work  here  and  now  so  well  begun,  would  have  its  full  fruition  in  the 
larger  development  of  this  most  profitable  industry,  that  the  Miss- 
issippi Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association  would,  in  years  to 
come,  be  found  one  of  the  most  important  of  its  kind  in  the  country 
and  justify  the  hopes  of  its  founders. 

Norman  J.  Colman  responded,  thanking  Mr.  Barstow  for  the 
cordial  manner  in  which  he  had  welcomed  its  members  and  express- 
ing the  earnest  hope  that  the  future  of  the  Association  would  fully 
justify  the  high  expectations  he  had  formed  of  both  its  success  and 
usefulness. 

Prof.  J.  W.  Sanborn,  Dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture, 
Columbia,  Mo.,  then  gave  an  address  as  follows  on  the 

Importance  of  the  Dairy  and^Creamery  Interests  to 

Missouri. 

The  United  States  and  Missouri  produced  the  following  amounts 
of  butter  in  past  decades : 


Per  Capita.  The  U.  S.  Missouri. 
1850                                      14.7  11. 4 

i860  14.5  10.7 

1870  13.3  8.3 

1880  15.3  13.1 


In  1880,  Iowa  produced  34.1  lbs.,  and  Vermont  78.9  lbs.,  per 
capita.  In  1880  the  United  States  exported,  .78  lbs.,  per  capita. 
Using  these  figures  we  find  that  Missonri  produces  10.6  per  cent, 
less  butter  than  the  country  averages  to  consume,  notwithstanding, 
the  southern  belt  of  States  consume  but  little  butter.  We  find,  on 
inquiring,  in  St.  Louis  that  we  consume  very  much  more  than  we 
produce.  Poverty  does  not,  then,  cut  down  our  consumption  much 
below  our  neighboring  States  ;  but  short-sightedness  induces  us  to 
sell  corn  at  1-2  a  cent  a  pound,  and  to  buy  butter  to-day  at  40  cents 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  7 


a  pound,  or  about  4  cents  a  pound  for  the  corn  we  sold  is  again 
paid  for  it,  or  nearly  eight  fold  increase.  We  sell  brawn  in  our 
raw  product,  at  unprofitable  prices  and  buy  brains,  or  skill,  back 
again  in  fine  butter.  This  is  not  only  a  loss  but  a  shame  to  us,  as 
our  climate,  pasturage  and  location,  has  fitted  us  for  a  great  butter 
producing  State. 

Corn  and  wheat  sells  soil  fertility.  The  components  of  butter 
are  entirely  drawn  from  the  air  and  water,  the  common  property  of 
all  the  States.  The  latter  does  not  exhaust  the  soil,  the  former  has 
carried  our  wheat  and  corn  averages  steadily  down  for  a  long  series 
of  years,  until  during  the  past  five  years,  we  have  reached  the  lowest 
average  of  any  previous  five  years,  and  so  low  as  to  make  their 
production  unprofitable.  Wheat  stands  at  an  average  of  1 1  and  a 
fraction,  and  corn  26  and  a  fraction  bushels  per  acre.  26  bushels  of 
corn  per  acre  means  for  the  average  corn  grower  $6.50  gross 
revenue  per  acre.  Surely  some  change  is  demanded.  I  am  told 
that  the  dairy  and  its  petty  attentions  will  do  for  the  small  farmers 
of  the  East.  Are  we  great  farmers,  and  so  successful  that  we  can 
afford  to  neglect  the  most  profitable  department  of  farming?  In 
1870  our  farms  averaged  149  acres,  in  1880  they  averaged  126  acres. 
Surely  there  is  a  mistake  about  our  being  great  farmers,  and  also  a 
mistake  about  the  dairy  being  too  small  a*  matter  for  our  attention. 
We  probably  consume  36,000,000  lbs.,  worth  $9,000,000.  Again, 
the  dairy  is  necessary  to  the  cheap  steer,  or  for  cheap  beef.  We 
now  use  more  of  our  cows  for  the  calf  alone,  never  milking  her. 
The  calf  costs  when  weaned,  $26 — wintering,  2  tons  hay  at  $5 
pasturing  $9,  interest  and  risk  $2  ;  as  she  takes  the  place  of  a  steer 
and  a  half,  she  shuts  out  the  profit  on  these,  we  will  use  $5  as  a 
low  sum,  total  of  $26,  (the  above  figures  were  given  the  speaker  by 
the  andience,  by  request).  This  serious  cost,  giving  rise  to  a 
general  complaint  that  beef  does  not  pay  as  well  as  it  did  before  the 
ranche  extension,  is  needless.  Our  calves  at  the  College  farm  are 
raised  with  skim  milk  and  the  cow  yields  a  direct  profit  for  butter. 
Mixed  farming,  with  the  dairy,  are  indispensible  requirements  in 
our  presene  stage  of  agriculture. 

Obstacles  to  Overcome. 
We  have  cows  bred  for  beef,  nursed  a  few  months  and  then 
driven  off.  A  radical  reformation  in  breeding,  selection,  handling  and 
care  of  our  cows  will  have  to  be  made  or  disaster  will  surely  befall  many 
of  our  creameries,  the  fault  not  resting  in  creameries,  but  in  the  low 
character  of  our  dairy  practices,  which  are  undoubtedly  at  a  low 
ebb.  1st.  We  want  cows  selected  for  butter  excellence  that  will 
milk  ten  months  of  the  year  and  give  no  less  than  200  lbs.  butter 
per  cow.  2nd.  The  cows  must  have  home  shelter  and  bedding  for 
cleanliness.  3rd.  Dog-ing  and  racing  with  horses  our  cows,  so 
very  common  with  us,  must  be  supplanted  with  the  greatest  gentle- 
ness in  handling.  3rd.  We  must  have  pure  water,  less  weeds  in 
our  pasture,  and  in  many  sections  less  shade  for  good  butter.  4th. 


s 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


We  need  to  train  a  line  of  milkers,  easy  enough,  but  yet  needed  in 
this  State.  5th.  We  must  make  a  better  quality  of  butter.  Our 
butter  has  an  unenviable  reputation ;  we  can  sell  none  beyond  our 
borders  until  we  make  it  better. 

Good,  pure,  or  uninjured  food,  is  absolutely  essential ;  corn 
meal  and  good  hay  give  butter  a  good  flavor  and  texture,  and  a 
good  quantity.  With  the  skill  that  may  be  readily  acquired,  this 
State  is  favored  with  the  conditions  that  ought  to  make  her  the 
great  butter  producing  State  of  the  West.  The  development  of 
our  dairying  will  greatly  increase  the  fertility  of  soils  under  proper 
management  and  the  wealth  of  the  community  where  carried  on. 
Missouri  should  sell  only  the  products  of  her  crops,  but  not  her 
crops. 

Mr.  C.  W.  Murtfeldt,  formerly  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of 
Agriculture,  then  read  an  essay  on  Associate  Dairying: 

Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  allow  me  to  assert,  that  the  con- 
ditions of  a  successful  creamery  differ  in  no  essential  or  perceptible 
degree,  from  those  of  a  successful  individual  dairy ;  except  that, 
supposably,  a  greater  amount  of  milk,  cream  and  butter  are  to  be 
handled.  I  mean  by  this  statement,  that  the  manipulation  of  milk, 
cream  and  butter,  in  their  various  stages  from  the  udder  of  the  cow, 
to  market,  are  precisely  the  same  ;  hence,  in  giving  you  the  salient 
points  of  a  paying  dairy,  supported  by  my  own  experience  of  many 
years,  and  of  many  more  years  of  study  and  observation,  you  will 
have  the  data  upon  which  the  creamery  may  be  made  to  pay.  I 
can  offer  no  opinion  as  to  whether  it  be  more  profitable  to  receive 
milk  at  the  creamery,  or  to  gather  cream  by  measure  or  weight. 
Doubtless  there  are  those  here  present  who  have  practical  experi- 
ence on  these  points,  and  will  give  it  to  you,  backed  up  by  figures, 
which  some  men  say  cannot  and  do  not  lie. 

Now,  being  somewhat  prepared  to  take  a  practical  view  of  the 
matter  under  consideration,  you  ask:  do  creameries  pay?  or  perhaps 
you  ask,  can  they  be  made  to  pay  in  this  section  of  our  land  ?  I 
answer,  why  not  ?  Establish  or  produce  the  necessary  conditions 
and  they  will  pay.  Anticipating  the  next  question :  What  are  the 
necessary  conditions?  I  proceed  to  give  you  my  views,  and  shall 
endeavor  to  explode  certain  theoretical  axioms,  (practically  exploded 
long  ago)  if  in  my  power:  First,  that  there  are  certain  climatic 
conditions  which  must  obtain  naturally,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
controlled  by  man.  I  admit  that  there  is  a  "cotton  belt,"  and  also 
a  "sugar  belt,"  and  that  it  is  folly  to  try  to  raise  cotton  or  sugar 
(if  from  Southern  cane),  north  of  its  Northern  limit.  But  when  it 
is  asserted — which  at  one  time  was  the  case — that  the  Western 
Reserve  of  Ohio  is  both  the  Western  and  the  Southern  limit  of  the 
imaginary  dairy  belt,  I  most  emphatically  protest  and  deny  the 
proposition. 

I  had  the  honor,  if  any  attaches,  of  being  one  of  the  pioneer 
dairymen  of  Northern  Illinois,  said  at  that  time  to  be  out  of  the 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


9 


"dairy  belt,"  because  too  far  West,  and  minus  tame  or  cultivated 
grasses.  For  eleven  years  I  marketed  my  butter,  and  that  made 
after  our  method  by  some  of  our  neighbors,  in  St.  Louis,  and  often 
obtained  from  25  to  28  cents  per  pound,  when  ordinary  dairy  butter 
retailed  for  from  10  to  12  cents,  and  I  could  now  give  you  the  names 
of  a  score  of  old  residents  of  St.  Louis,  my  former  patrons,  who 
would  at  once  be  recognized  as  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  the  very 
elite  of  St.  Louis  at  that  time.  Out  of  that  proven  fact,  namely,  to 
produce  the  best  kind  of  butter  in  that  section,  have  grown  the  vast 
dairies  in  Northern  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  the  former  now 
represented  by  the  Dairymen's  Exchange  of  Elgin,  Illinois. 

Illinois  has  now  409  creameries  in  active  operation,  Iowa  has 
over  600,  and  Wisconsin  has  nearly  as  many,  and  a  number  of 
private  or  individual  dairies  besides  ;  and  New  York  and  Boston 
and  other  eastern  cities  furnish  their  consumers  of  their  dairy 
product,  not  even  to  mention  the  exportation  of  the  same. 

But  to  return  to  my  proposition :  Unlike  the  sugar  and  the 
cotton  belt,  the  conditions  of  successful  dairying  are  almost  entirely 
under  the  control  of  man,  because  the  temperature  required  for 
milk,  cream  and  butter,  and  the  apartments  in  which  to  manufacture 
or  store  can  be  artificially  produced.  Ice  in  summer,  and  wood 
and  coal  in  winter,  with  the  best  adapted  aparatus  and  careful 
observation,  will,  or  rather  can  be  made  to  furnish  a  temperature 
most  favorable  to  produce  the  best  results,  even  .here  in  this  section, 
though  most  likely  at  a  little  extra  cost. 

Let  me  give  you  the  record  made  by  some  noted  Jersey  cows : 
The  Jersey  cow,  Nancy  Lee,  owned  by  C.  Easthope,  Niles,  Ohio, 
and  taking  sweepstakes  as  best  Jersey  cow,  has  the  following  rec- 
ord: Gave  1,430  pounds,  three  ounces  of  milk  in  thirty-one  days. 
There  was  made  from  this  milk  95  pounds,  three  and  one-half 
ounces  of  butter.  In  one  day  her  milk  made  four  pounds,  two  and 
one-half  ounces  of  butter ;  in  seven  days  26  pounds,  eight  and  one- 
half  ounces.  Coomassie's  milk,  16  5-8  quarts,  made  2  pounds  7 
ounces  butter.  Maudine,  of  Elmwood,  gave  227  pounds,  14  ounces 
of  milk  from  the  19th  to  the  26th  of  February,  which  produced  16 
pounds,  15  ounces  of  butter.  There  are  at  present  in  the  United 
States  600  Jersey  cows,  which  have  records  of  over  12  pounds  of 
butter  per  week.  This  naturally  leads  to  the  second  item,  viz: 
The  right  kind  of  pastures  and  feed.  I  find  that  with  proper  culti- 
vation all  perennial  grasses,  justly  so  highly  valued  in  the  "butter 
belt"  of  old,  flourish  in  this  vicinity,  and  in  addition  we  have  that  so 
justly  rated  highest — I  mean  the  blue  grass.  Timothy,  orchard 
grass,  red  top  or  foul  meadow  and  clover.  For  hay,  Hungarian  and 
Millett,  when  sown  thick  so  as  to  produce  fine  blades,  are  very 
valuable  for  winter  feeding,  also  a  blue  grass  pasture,  which  has 
lain  idle  since  the  previous  June,  is  of  great  value.  But  as  good 
lands  are  very  valuable  and  high  priced  in  these  parts,  and  as  it 
requires  two  acres  to  pasture  one  cow  through  the  season,  if  she  is 


10       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


allowed  to  roam  at  will,  in  a  dry  summer  even  that  would  not  be 
sufficient,  the  aim  and  practice  should  be  to  soil  the  cows ;  that  is, 
to  cut  the  feed  green,  allow  it  to  wilt,  so  as  to  evaporate  a  large 
portion  of  the  water  it  contains,  which  would  make  the  handling 
thereof  lighter  and  lessen  the  labor  of  hauling  and  feeding,  and  con- 
centrate the  nutritive  parts  and  feed  in  a  small  lot  or  even  stalls.  In 
order  to  keep  in  good  health,  cattle  must  exercise  some,  and  if  this 
can  be  done  while  they  are  driven  to  water,  all  well ;  if  not,  some 
other  way  must  be  provided.  Rye  may  be  sown  in  early  autumn 
for  late  pasture  and  also  to  be  cut  before  the  grasses  next  spring ; 
yet,  so  as  not  to  make  it  all  the  rough  feed  given,  because  it  is 
claimed  by  some  authorities  that  it  will  cause  abortion. 

For  winter  feeding,  roots  should  also  form  a  large  part.  Carrots, 
mangolds,  ruta-bagas,  Russia  turnips  and  potatoes,  are  named  in 
this  connection.  Bran,  shipstuff,  corn  meal  and  linseed  meal,  the 
latter  in  small  quantities  would  go  to  make  up  a  change  of  feed,  and 
all  of  those  are  greatly  relished  by  the  stock,  and  are  conductive  to 
good  health  and  an  increase  in  the  production  of  milk. 

My  No.  3  refers  to  pure  water  for  the  drink  of  the  cattle,  and 
also  necessary  in  the  manipulations  of  the  utensils,  and  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  butter.  Clear  streams,  whose  waters  are  not  impreg- 
nated with  deleterious  minerals,  are  good  enough  for  watering 
stock.  But  there  is  no  water  equal  to  pure  filtered  rain  water,  for 
the  washing  of  butter.  This  can  be  obtained  from  the  building  or 
buildings  of  the  creamery  or  dairy,  if  a  little  attention  is  given  to 
allow  the  first  rain-fall  to  wash  off  the  roofs,  and  after  that  run  into 
the  filters  and  thence  into  the  cistern.  Such  water  is  as  pure  (if  not 
absolutely  so)  as  is  desirable ;  it  is  colorless  and  tasteless. 

But  I  proceed  to  No  4.  The  right  temperature  for  milk  and 
cream.  And  here  at  the  outset  I  will  state  that  milk  and  cream 
need  pure  air ;  not  in  a  draught,  which  tends  to  make  the  cream 
leathery  ;  but  an  even  temperature  of  from  60  to  65  degrees  ;  cream 
should  be  churned  at  62  degrees.  No  cream  should  be  added1  to 
the  mess  ,  for  at  least  three  hours  before  churning,  when  the  cream 
should  be  well  stirred  and  left  to  ripen.  Buildings  can  be  so  con- 
structed, or  apartments  in  buildings  at  least,  which  will  hold  a 
uniform  temperature  at  these  points,  even  in  very  warm  weather. 
The  air  within  and  without  in  surroundings  should  be  pure  and 
sweet ;  hence  the  yards,  sheds  and  stables  should  be  kept  scrupul- 
ously clean. 

Common  earth  and  also  lime  are  great  deodorizes,  and  should 
be  freely  used  with  the  solid  excrements  of  the  stock,  while  it  would 
well  pay,  in  an  economic  point,  to  conduct  the  liquids  of  the  stable 
to  a  tank,  which  would  be  provided  with  a  tight  covering.  There  is 
nothing  in  dairy  economy  so  quick  to  spoil  from  bad  odors  as  milk. 
And  while  at  least  one  head  of  a  German  experimental  station 
denies  the  influence  of  feed  upon  the  taste  of  milk,  so  as  to  taint  the 
same,  we,  on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  know  better.  A  little  incident, 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  11 


personal  to  myself,  will  explain  this  point:  In  the  spring  of  1845, 
I  was  engaged  in  a  work,  which  obliged  me  to  set  at  other  people's 
tables.  This  was  in  northern  Illinois,  and  in  the  proximity  of  two 
groves.  At  breakfast  I  found  beside  my  plate  one-half  of  an  onion, 
and  was  counseled  to  partake  of  the  same,  for  the  reason  that  I 
would  not  taste  a  peculiar  flavor  in  the  cream  and  with  my  coffee, 
which  would  most  likely  produce  nausea  unless  I  did  so.  On  inquiry 
for  the  reason  of  that  peculiar  flavor,  I  was  informed  that  the  milch 
cows  roamed  in  the  groves  and  fed  upon  wild  onions  to  some  extent, 
these  having  started  to  grow  earlier  and  quicker  than  the  grass. 
Cabbage  and  turnips,  when  fed  plentiful  will  produce  a  like  effect, 
though  to  a  less  degree.  Therefore  all  these  vegetables  and  any 
thing  like  garbage  or  decayed  fruit  must  be  far  removed  from  the 
milk  house,  and  when  in  a  decaying  condition  should  immediately 
be  covered  with  earth,  or  hauled  to  the  field.  If  you  will  allow  me 
to  take  a  step  back,  I  will  state  that  is  best  to  expel  the  animal  heat 
from  the  milk  as  soon  as  possible,  after  it  is  drawn  from  the  udder; 
ice,  if  pure,  may  be  used  in  summer,  and  heat  in  winter.  I  would 
not  advise  the  use  of  ice  from  pools  of  standing  water,  even  for  the 
purpose  of  cooling  the  apartment  or  dairy  room,  and  most  cer- 
tainly not  to  be  applied  to  the  milk  directly. 

I  have  hitherto  said  not  a  word  of  coloring  butter.  I  believe 
that  where  roots  are  fed  and  linseed  meal,  it  is  not  necessary.  It  is 
a  depraved  taste  or  public  opinion  which  demands  it,  and  it  is  more 
or  less  deleterious  to  the  keeping  quality  of  butter.  Anotta,  a  red 
coloring  matter  is  generally  used  ;  but  the  color  is  not  natural,  as  can 
be  easily  proven  by  placing  such  butter  alongside  of  that  which  has 
not  been  artificially  colored.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  juice 
of  sweet  carrots  would  produce  the  same  result. 

The  next  point  is  perfect  cleanliness  of  the  milkers  and  also  of 
the  utensils ;  this  will  be  conceded  without  argument.  Allow  me 
to  emphasize  this  point.  "There  must  not  be  any  odors,  decaying 
vegetables,  or  garbage,  or  taint  of  manure,  anywhere  near  where 
the  milk  is  set,  and  not  even  in  the  yards  or  sheds  where  the  milk  is 
drawn. 

The  milkers  hands  should  be  clean,  and  if  possible,  soft;  the 
finger  nails  be  pared  short,  and,  if  farm  laborers  must  do  the  milk- 
ing, the  hands  should  be  washed  in  warm  water  and  made  pliable 
by  friction,  previous  to  milking.  The  same  person  should  milk  the 
same  cows  as  nearly  always  as  possible.  There  should  be  no  noise 
or  coversation  while  the  milking  is  being  done,  and  this  should  be 
done  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  to  the  last  spoonful.  The  utmost 
gentleness  should  be  exercised  towards  the  cows  even  under  the 
severest  provocation.  A  good  and  profitable  cow  is  easily  spoiled 
and  made  worthless  for  the  dairy  by  a  careless  and  passionate 
milker.  A  good  cow  is  in  one  sense  a  machine  originally  perfect, 
which  will  run  like  a  clock  or  watch,  and  is  as  easily  spoiled  as 
either.    She  is  also  a  machine  in  another  sense  ;  she  will  convert 


12       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


the  feed  and  drink  given  her  into  milk  and  its  product,  (by  the  aid 
of  man  of  course.)  The  dairyman  must  learn  by  observation  or 
rather,  he  should  know  how  much  feed  an  individual  cow  will  con- 
sume and  assimilate,  or  use  and  digest,  and  yet  keep  her  health  and 
appetite  good,  so  as  to  relish  all  the  feed  given,  and  thus  produce 
the  most  of  milk  and  butter.  Overfeed  a  milk  cow  once  and  it 
will  take  her  a  week  or  two  to  regain  her  appetite,  and  during  all 
this  time  she  will  shrink  in  flesh  and  in  her  milk,  and  this,  of  course 
ends  in  loss  of  cash. 

And  now  lastly  as  to  expert  butter  makers,  allow  me  to  say 
that  they  are  none  too  plentiful.  There  are  points  in  the  process 
which  can  only  be  ascertained  by  experience ;  though  the  art  can 
be  so  easily  described  in  words,  that  any  one  at  all  familiar  with  the 
implements  and  technical  terms  of  dairying  could  soon  understand. 
Experience,  however,  is  the  best  schoolmaster,  and  bought  wit  is 
good,  if  not  bought  too  dear.  Allow  me  my  hearers  just  to  hint 
that  you  cannot  afford  to  -purchase  in  that  market  I 

M  ARRETS. 

The  large  cities  of  Missouri,  Kansas,  Colorado  and  the  south 
will  afford  good  markets  for  all.  A  No.  i  gilt-edged  butter  this 
section  can  produce. 

In  summing  up  this  essay  and  the  proposition  submitted  for 
your  consideration,  1  wish  to  be  understood  as  reiterating  the  axiom 
that  if  you  can  produce  certain  conditions,  which  I  have  endeavored 
to  point  out,  successful  creameries  can  be  established  in  this 
latitude  ;  though  outside  of  and  south  of  the  so-called  "dairy  belt." 
By  inference  I  have  pointed  out  certain  other  conditions,  which, 
unless  these  are  met,  your  enterprise  will  most  likely  result  in 
failure.  In  other  words :  Produce  the  live-stock,  the  best  feed, 
the  right  sort  of  men  and  women  operatives,  the  temperature  and 
utensils,  and  the  business  man  to  conduct  the  enterprise,  and  make 
sales  at  the  most  oportune  time  and  place,  and  success  is  assured. 
Without  any  of  these,  failure  is  certain. 

I  learn  from  most  reliable  sources  that  last  year  the  butter  of 
some  of  the  Iowa  creameries  was  bought  at  22  or  23  cents  per  pound 
and  held  for  higher  prices  until  late  autumn  or  winter.  The  buyer 
lost  thousands  of  dollars,  and  the  last  of  his  purchase  sold  in  New 
York  for  eleven  cents* per  pound.  This  shows  that  sagacity  and 
business  tact  are  great  points  in  a  manager.  Just  now,  and  for 
weeks  past,  the  best  creamery  butter  has  been  selling  by  the  tub  at 
40  cents  and  over. 

I  stated  in  the  outset  the  enormous  increase  in  cash  value  of  the 
dairy  products  of  the  United  States.  It  is  greater  than  the  value  of 
all  the  cotton  and  wool  combined  ;  greater  even  than  the  value  of 
all  the  wheat  of  the  land.  Hence,  men  have  tried  to  imitate  butter, 
and  are  manufacturing  oleomargarine,  butterine,  and  lardine,  and 
other  concoctions  of  fat,  oil  and  grease,  thus  undermining  the  sale  of 
the  genuine  article.    Therefore,  in  closing,  I  take  pleasure  to  say 


Mississippi  Vllley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


13 


for  our  much  maligned  State  of  Missouri,  her  legislature  and  her 
courts,  that  we  have  a  law  sustained  by  decision  of  our  higher  courts 
declaring  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  these  abominable  and  deleteri- 
ous substitutes  a  fraud. 

I  give  you  a  brief  synopsis  of  this  law  as  I  find  it  in  print,  and 
I  will  add  the  further  fact,  that  even  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  has,  by  its  Chief  Justice  and  District  Court  declared 
it  a  good  law  and  will  sustain  it,  should  an  appeal  carry  it  before 
that  tribunal : 

Whoever  manufactures  out  of  any  oleaginous  substances,  or 
any  compound  of  the  same  other  than  that  produced  from  unadul- 
terated milk  or  cream  from  the  same,  any  article  designed  to  take 
the  place  of  butter  or  cheese  produced  from  pure  unadulterated 
milk  or  cream  of  the  same,  or  shall  sell  or  offer  for  sale  the  same  as 
an  article  of  food,  shall,  on  conviction  thereof,  be  confined  in  the 
County  Jail  not  exceeding  one  year,  or  fined  not  exceeding  $1,000, 
or  both. 

The  President  introduced  Mrs.  A.  H.  Wing,  of  Vandalia,  Ills., 
who  read  the  following  interesting  paper  on  the  management  of  the 
dairy : 

Management  of  the  Dairy. 

There  appears  just  now  a  growing  interest  among  the  farmers 
in  regard  to  the  dairy  and  creamery  business.  Almost  every  farmer 
you  meet  has  something  to  say  upon  the  subject.  The  question  is  : 
"Which  will  put  the  most  money  into  the  farmers'  pocket,  to  go 
into  the  dairy  business  themselves  more  thoroughly,  or  sell  their 
cream  to  a  creamery?"  I  am  very  frequently  asked  the  question : 
"Does  it  pay  to  keep  so  many  cows?"  I  answer  yes.  But  to  make 
it  pay  you  must  keep  good  cows,  and  no  other,  for  one  or  two 
inferior  cows  will  eat  up  all  the  profits  of  the  good  ones.  Then 
they  must  be  well  fed  on  the  best  and  most  nutritious  food.  I  think 
the  very  best  feed  a  milk  cow  can  have  is  clover  hay,  all  she  can 
eat,  and  a  good  feed  twice  a  day  of  corn  and  oats,  ground  together, 
and  all  the  water  she  will  drink,  (not  ice  water  either),  pure,  fresh 
water  from  the  well.  Then  they  should  be  provided  with  clean, 
warm,  comfortable  barns,  where  they  will  be  safe  from  the  inclem- 
ency of  the  weather.  In  a  word,  keep  all  the  good  cows  you  can, 
and  keep  them  well ;  give  them  more  ©f  your  individual  attention  ; 
don't  throw  too  much  responsibility  on  hired  help.  Make  it  your 
business  to  look  after  your  cows,  keeping  yourself  posted  on  all  and 
everything  connected  with  them,  Be  sure  your  cows  are  milked  by 
careful,  kind  and  gentle  hands,  and  the  milking  done  in  the  most 
cleanly  and  quiet  manner. 

Use  tin  pails  ;  never  use  wooden  ones  ;  you  cannot  keep  them 
sweet  and  pure,  and  never  allow  your  milk  pails  to  be  used  for  any 
other  purpose.  Set  the  milk  in  deep  cans,  not  too  large  to  be  con- 
veniently handled,  twenty  inches  deep  by  eight  in  diameter,  with 
close-fitting  covers,  I  think  the  most  desirable,  the  cans  to  be  set  in 


14       Eeport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


a  tank  of  cold  water  or  refrigerator,  where  the  milk  will  be  kept  at 
a  uniform  temperature  of  fifty-four  degrees.  Of  course,  if  you  have 
a  spring  of  clear  cold  water  where  you  can  convey  the  water  around 
the  milk  you  can  keep  it  better  than  any  other  way. 

But  let  careful  handling  and  the  most  perfect  cleanliness  be 
your  constant  care.  The  milk  house  or  loom  should  be  used  for  dairy 
purposes  and  no  other,  never  allowing  any  offensive  odors  to  come 
in  close  proximity  to  the  milk.  No  person  smoking  tobacco  or  with 
dirt  of  any  kind  on  their  feet,  should  be  allowed  to  enter  the  dairy 
room,  as  they  will  leave  an  offensive  odor  that  the  milk  will  take 
up  and  impart  to  the  cream. 

The  result  will  be  inferior  butter.  No  difference  whether  made 
in  a  dairy  or  creamery,  the  result  will  be  the  same,  for  no  dairy  or 
creamery  can  produce  gilt-edge  butter  out  of  poor  inferior  cream. 
Both  have  to  depend  upon  the  quantity  of  the  cream  for  the  purity 
of  their  butter. 

So  there  is  no  difference  which  plan  you  adopt,  dairy  or  cream- 
ery, either  will  pay  you,  so  long  as  you  will  observe  all  of  these 
rules.  Good  cows,  (the  more  the  better),  well  fed  and  watered, 
comfortably  kept  and  kindly  handled,  the  milk  kept  in  the  best  pos- 
sible manner  to  get  the  most  and  purest  cream.  If  you  decide  to 
sell  your  cream  to  a  creamery,  which  I  think  is  much  the  better  plan, 
if  you  have  but  few  cows,  vou  certainly  will  find  it  to  your  interest 
to  observe  all  of  these  rules.  You  will  find  by  so  doing  that  "it 
will  pay  to  keep  so  many  cows,"  but  it  will  not  pay  to  keep  inferior 
cows,  poorly  fed  and  allowed  to  drink  ice  water,  (and  go  days 
without  even  that),  and  stand  in  the  fence  corners  shivering  with 
the  cold,  then  cursed,  beat  or  kicked  because  they  can't  stand  still 
while  their  inhuman  owners  try  to  get  the  little  milk  they  have  to 
give,  poor  in  quality  as  well  as  quantity,  (which  is  more  than  their 
masters  deserve),  into  a  pail  used  for  all  purposes,  and  often  a 
wooden  one,  or  if  tin,  the  strainer  attached  to  the  pail,  where  it  is 
covered  with  the  loose  dirt  from  the  cow's  udder,  then  the  milk  is 
strained  through  it  into  all  conceivable  kinds  of  vessels.  It  is  then 
set  in  the  cupboard  or  safe  standing  in  the  kitchen,  where  all  the 
different  kinds  of  vegetables  are  cooked,  and  the  men  sit  and  smoke 
after  each  meal,  and  too  often  the  women  smoke  all  the  time  they 
are  cooking,  skimming  the  milk,  churning  and  working  the  butter, 
often  churning  for  two  or  three  hours,  then  setting  the  churn  aside 
to  be  finished  the  next  day  (that  day  often  the  Sabbath),  and  all  for 
the  want  of  a  thermometer  (costing  forty  cents)  to  test  the  cream 
and  have  it  at  the  right  temperature — many  hours  spent  in  the 
hardest  kind  of  labor  to  be  charged  to  guess  work.  The  salting 
of  the  butter  is  done  in  the  same  manner  by  guess  ;  taking  up  a 
handful  of  salt  (common  barrel  salt),  and  working  it  into  the  but- 
ter ;  then  they  think  they  have  not  put  in  enough,  and  so  put  in 
another  handful,  and  work,  slap  and  smooth  it  over  until  it  is  nothing 
but  salty  grease,  which  they  cannot  sell  for  more  than  ten  or  fifteen 
cents  per  pound,  and  it  is  dear  even  at  that  price. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


15 


I  think  it  would  take  a  pretty  smart  expert  creamery  man  to 
make  a  butter  out  of  their  cream  that  he  could  palm  off  on  the  city 
dealers  as  good  creamery  butter.  And  those  same  parties  will  tell 
you  "it  does  not  pay  to  keep  so  many  cows."    Any  wonder?. 

Ask  them  what  agricultural  papers  they  take.  Their  answer 
will  be  the  same:    "  It  doesn'tpay  to  take  a  paper." 

At  the  close  of  the  essay  the  lady  was  much  applauded,  and 
a  unanimous  vote  of  thanks  was  passed  and  tendered  her,  not  only 
for  the  able  discourse  she  had  just  read,  but  also  for  the  fact  that 
she  had  the  courage  to  come  before  the  meeting  where  she  was  the 
only  lady  present. 

The  President  then  called  on  Col.  T.  D.  Curtis,  editor  of  the 
Farmer  and  Dairyman,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  who  proceeded  to  read  an 
essay  as  follows,  on 

Missouri  as  a  Dairy  State. 

I  have  for  years  wondered  why  the  middle  States  do  not  go 
more  into  dairying.  I  consider  them  better  adapted  to  this  business 
than  are  the  extreme  Northern  ones.  The  very  thing  that  is  cited 
against  them  is  what  I  consider  in  their  favor — a  higher  tempera- 
ture. Of  course  one  cannot  successfully  raise  cream  up  in  the 
eighties  and  nineties,  nor  long  keep  milk  sweet  at  that  temperature. 
But  we  have  apparatus  for  setting  milk  that  works  equally  well 
whether  the  weather  be  hot  or  cold.  We  can  control  the  tempera- 
ture of  our  milk,  and  produce  equally  good  results  at  all  seasons, 
whatever  the  temperature  of  the  atmosphere  may  be,  so  far  as 
handling  and  manipulation  are  concerned.  Once  we  were  depend- 
ent on  the  conditions  of  the  atmosphere;  but  that  time  has 
passed  by. 

Our  worst  obstacle  in  the  production  of  milk  is  cold  weather. 
From  September  to  the  middle  of  May,  frost  and  cold  work  against 
us.  By  the  latter  part  of  September  the  frost  cuts  our  pastures  and 
j  renders  our  grasses  unfit  for  the  production  of  first-class  milk. 
From  September  to  snow-fall,  our  pasture  grasses  have  to  be  sup- 
plemented with  other  foods  ;  and  usually  by  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber we  have  to  supply  food  artificially  altogether  until  the  middle 
of  May. 

Here  is  a  heavy  tax  by  way  of  supplying  food  to  supplement 
Our  frost-bitten  grasses,  and  of  preparing  hay  and  other  feed  and 
dealing  it  out  to  the  other  animals  until  grass  comes  again,  in  May. 
Sometimes,  bnt  rarely,  in  my  State,  we  may  turn  our  cattle  out  to 
pasture  by  the  first  of  May;  and  then  again,  we  may  have  to  fodder 
— as  we  did  last  year — until  the  first  of  June.  So  that,  on  an  aver- 
age, we  cannot  count  on  pasture  grass  before  the  middle  of  May. 
From  that  time  until  frost  comes  again,  in  the  fall",  a  period  of  only 
about  four  months,  we  usually  feed  nothing,  leaving  our  cows  en- 
tirely to  the  supply  of  the  pastures.  But  we  have  leading  dairymen 
who  feed  a  little  grain  of  some  kind  every  day  in  the  year  that  the 


16       Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


cow  gives  milk,  and  declare  that  they  find  a  profit  in  it,  through  the 
better  quality  and  the  steadier  and  prolonged  flow  of  milk. 

The  farther  north  we  get,  the  more  this  labor  and  expense  of 
feeding  and  keeping  our  cows  increases,  the  season  of  no  frost  being 
shorter,  and  that  of  winter  feeding  proportionally  longer. 

We  are  gradually  working  into  winter  dairying.  In  the  older 
and  wealthier  sections  some  of  the  dairymen  have  provided  them- 
selves with  warm  barns  and  dairy  appliances  for  winter  operations. 
They  must  keep  their  cows  through  the  winter  in  some  way,  and  it 
costs  but  little  more  to  feed  for  a  flow  of  milk,  if  we  count  what  is 
not  returned  in  milk  as  the  cost  of  keeping.  Warm  barns  save 
fodder  which  would  otherwise  be  consumed  to  keep  up  the  tem- 
perature of  the  animal ;  and  all  the  extra  feed  is  turned  into  dairy 
products. 

But  if  we  turn  out  first-class  dairy  products,  we  have  to  feed 
somewhat  differently,  as  well  as  more  generously,  in  winter.  We 
must  observe  a  due  balance  between  the  carbonaceous  or  heat-pro- 
ducing foods  and  the  nitrogenous  or  milk  and  muscle-producing 
foods.  And  we  must  do  even  more  than  this.  We  must  make  up 
a  portion  of  our  rations  of  some  kind  of  succulent  food,  so  as  to 
approximate  pasture  grass  in  composition.  We  can  do  this  with 
roots  of  various  kinds,  the  sugar-beet  being  best  of  any,  or  by 
steaming  cut  feed,  or  by  giving  a  portion  of  good  ensilaged  fodder 
corn.  The  latter  is  getting  quite  popular  with  many,  but  its  value 
depends  largely  upon  the  manner  of  growing,  and  on  its  perfect 
preservation — two  considerations  which  cause  ensilaged  maize  to 
vary  fully  one-half  in  value.  Cutting  and  steaming  food  is  not  gen- 
erally practiced.  It  is  too  expensive  for  any  but  large  and  wealthy 
dairymen.  But  all  can  grow  roots  at  about  the  same  cost,  and  all 
of  average  means  can  put  in  a  silo.    But  I  will  speak  of  this  again. 

By  this  hasty  outline  you  will  see  what  we  have  to  work 
against,  and  will  already  have  made  a  comparison  with  the  advan- 
tages which  you  have  in  your  State.  Our  hot  months,  with  which 
we  used  to  have  so  much  trouble,  are  July  and  August — two  of  the 
four  months  in  which  our  pastures  are  supposed  to  supply  all  the  wants 
of  our  cows.  These  months  may  not  be  quite  as  hot  as  with  you, 
but  they  are  often,  during  some  portions  of  them,  months  of  drouth, 
during  which  we  must  either  feed  some  soiling  crop — such  as  fodder, 
corn,  rye,  rowen  millet,  or  other  crop  grown  for  the  purpose— or 
else  suffer  a  serious  shrinkage  of  the  flow  of  milk,  which  cannot  be 
entirely  regained,  to  say  nothing  of  a  deteriorated  product. 

So  you  see  it  is  a  hard  and  expensive  struggle  to  keep  our  dairies 
running,  either  summer  or  winter.  We  have  only  about  two  months, 
or  two  and  a  half  at  the  most,  in  which  it  is  not  advantageous  to 
add  to  or  supplement  the  feed  of  our  pastures,  and  at  least  six 
months  in  the  year  we  have  to  depend  entirely  on  foddering.  We 
have  learned  how  to  mainly  overcome  all  deleterious  effects  of  heat 
in  the  summer,  and  we  are  beginning  to  largely  understand  how  to 


Mississippi  Valley  Daity  and  Creamery  Association.  17 


overcome  the  bad  effects  of  cold,  by  better  shelter  and  proper  feed 
for  our  cows. 

Now,  how  is  it  with  you,  in  Missouri  ?  Have  you  any  greater 
•obstacles  to  overcome  than  we  have  ? 

You  have  less  winter  foddering  than  we  have,  and  all  the  ap- 
pliances that  we  have  for  overcoming  the  disadvantageous  effects  of 
heat  are  equally  at  your  disposal.  Then  why  cannot  you  carry  on 
dairying  as  well  as  we  ?  In  the  matter  of  winter  dairying  you  have 
decidedly  the  advantage  of  us.  You  have  a  shorter  foddering  season  ; 
it  is  less  trouble  and  expense  for  you  to  keep  up  the  animal  heat  of 
your  cows,  by  proper  shelter,  because  you  have  not  so  low  a  tem- 
perature to  contend  with,  and  you  have  plenty  of  feed  of  the  best 
kind.  What  is  to  hinder  you  from  getting  the  best  cows,  if  you 
have  them  not  already,  and  beating  us,  of  the  North,  at  our  own 
game  ? 

You  cut  no  inconsiderable  figure  in  the  last  census.  Let  me 
call  your  attention  to  a  few  figures,  which  will  be  of  interest  as 
bearing  on  the  question  which  I  am  considering : 

According  to  the  last  census,  you  had  661,405  cows,  9,020 
working  oxen,  and  1,410,507  other  cattle— a  total  of  2,080,932  head 
of  cattle  of  all  kinds.  This  indicates  your  capacity  for  growing  and 
keeping  stock.  You  have  run  largely  to  beef.  But  anywhere  that 
good  beef  can  be  procured,  dairying  can  be  successfully  carried  on. 
And  yet,  you  have  not  begun  to  test  your  capacity. 

With  your  661,405  cows,  you  have  turned  out,  of  butter — 

lbs. 

On  the  farm,  -  28,572,124 

In  the  factory,  -----  126,884 
In  skimmed  cheese  factories,  -       -       -  13,980 

A  total  of   28,712,988 

Of  cheese  you  turned  out — 

On  the  farm,   283,484 

In  the  factory,   550,265 

In  skimmed  cheese  factories,  -       -       -  39,800 

A  total  of  873,549 

The  total  number  of  pounds  of  dairy  products  was — 

Butter,  28,712,988 

Cheese,  873,549 

Total  pounds  of  product,        -       -  29,586,537 

The  butter  at  25  cts.  per  lb.  was  worth,  -  $7,178,247 
The  cheese  at  10  cents,  -       -       -       -  87,355 


The  handsome  sum  of 


$7,265,602 


18       Report  of  the  Proceedings  op  the  Meeting  of  the 


And  this  you  did  without  trying.  What  might  you  not  do  if 
you  went  to  work  in  earnest? 

Let  me  show  you  what  New  York,  the  leading  dairy  State  of 
the  Union,  did. 

She  made  of  butter —  lbs. 

On  the  farm,  ------  111,922,423 

In  the  factory,  4,197,424 

In  skimmed  cheese  factories,  -       -       -  4,758,354 

A  total  of  -       -  120,878,201 

Of  cheese — 

On  the  farm,  ------  8,362,590 

In  the  factory,  -  108,722,852 
In  skimmed  cheese  factories,  -       -       -  12,078,272 

A  total  of  129,163,714 

At  25c  a  lb.  the  value  of  the  butter  was  $30,219,550 
Of  the  cheese  at  10  cents,       -       -       -  12,916,371 

A  total  of       -  $43,235,921 
So  much  for  the  leading  dairy  State,  which  begins  to  give  you 
an  inkling  of  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  this  vast  interest. 
But  a  glance  at  the  totals  for  the  whofe  United  States  will  help  us 
to  still  more  fully  comprehend  our  great  dairy  interest.    The  census 
of  1880  showed  a  total  of — 

Cows,    -------  12,443,120 

Working  oxen,       -----  993,841 

Other  cattle,  22,488,550 

Total  number  of  head,    -       -       -  35,925,511 
Which  is  about  three-quarters  of  an  animal  to  every  inhabitant, 
numbering  50,000,000.    From  our  12,443,120-  cows,  we  produced 
as  reported — 

Butter,  -  -  -  -  -  806,672,071 
Cheese,  243,157,850 

A  total  of  1,049,829,921 
The  total  value  of  this,  counting  butter  at  25  cents  and  cheese 
at  10  cents  a  pound,  was — 

Butter,  -  -  -  -  -  $201,668,017 
Cheese,       ------  24,315,785 

Total  value,         -  $225,983,802 
Of  our  product  of  cheese,  in  1882,  we  exported  147,995,614 
pounds,  and  81,560,500  pounds  of  butter.  How  much  was  oleomar- 
garine butter  and  butterine,  the  Lord  only  knows.    It  is  worthy  of 
note,  however,,  that  we  exported  very  little  butter  before  ol earn arga- 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  19 


rine  came  into  market.  Butter  for  export  must  go  at  22  cents  a 
pound  or  below.  Our  total  exports  of  dairy  goods  amount  to  about 
one-sixth  of  our  product.  Fully  one-half  of  our  cheese  goes  abroad. 
Our  butter,  of  which  there  is  an  enormous  make,  is  consumed 
mainly  at  home.  So  was  our  cheese  until  about  i860,  when  the 
factory  system  sprang  up.  We  then  began  to  make  dry,  hard 
cheese  for  shipping  purposes,  and  so  disgusted  the  home  palate  and 
insulted  the  American  stomach,  that  our  consumption  per  capita  was 
reduced  fully  one-half.  Had  we  never  had  a  foreign  market,  and 
continued  to  cater  to  the  home  demand,  we  would  now  be  making 
just  as  much  cheese  and  consuming  it  all  at  home.  A  foreign  mar- 
ket, in  the  end,  works  to  the  disadvantage  of  any  country,  however 
much  it  may  favor  certain  classes.  It  is  better  for  every  country  to 
supply  its  own  needs  as  far  as  possible. 

But,  are  we  not  already  overdoing  the  dairy  business  ?  A  few 
figures  will  answer.  In  1850,  we  had  6,385,094  cows  to  23,191,876 
inhabitants,  or  one  cow  to  3.63  inhabitants.  In  1880  we  had 
12,443, 120  cows  ^°  5°'I55'7^3  inhabitants,  or  one  cow  to  4.03  in- 
habitants. Thus  it  appears  the  increase  of  population  in  30  years, 
has  been  40  greater  than  the  increase  in  the  number  of  cows.  This 
does  not  look  much  like  overdoing  the  dairy  business. 

However,  we  have,  in  the  meantime,  increased  the  yield  per  cow 
from  65.77  P°unds  to  84. 37 pounds — an  increase  of  18.60  pounds  per 
cow  ;  and  we  have  increased  the  yield  of  dairy  product  per  capita,  from 
18.06  pounds  to  20.93  pounds — or  2.87  pounds  per  capita.  Though, 
in  consequence  of  our  folly  of  catering  to  a  foreign  market,  we 
have  reduced  the  consumption  per  capita. 

Therefore,  I  conclude  that  it  will  be  a  good  many  years  before 
we  shall  increase  our  dairy  products  beyond  the  limits  of  normal 
home  consumption,  provided  we  make  goods  suited  to  the  home 
palate,  to  say  nothing  of  what  we  may  find  an  outlet  for  in  other 
countries. 

But,  by  the  way,  I  consider  it  a  very  bad  policy  to  send  the  pro- 
ducts of  our  soil  abroad.  We  thereby  rob  our  country  of  valuable 
fertilizing  materials  and  get  the  smallest  recompense  for  our  labor — 
raw  materials  always  selling  at  the  smallest  profit,  and  more  espe- 
cially so  when  there  is  a  surplus,  as  there  must  be  when  we  have 
them  to  send  abroad. 

Our  consumption  of  dairy  goods  per  capita  is  now  17.47  pounds 
against  18.06  pounds  in  1850 — a  falling  of  .59  of  a  pound  per  capita, 
while  the  increased  product  per  capita  is  2.87  pounds.  But  we  must 
not  forget  that  we  have  discouraged  home  consumption  during  the 
last  20  odd  years,  and  that  we  formerly  consumed  practically  all  our 
dairy  goods  at  home  when  we  had  a  larger  proportion  of  cows  to 
population  and  made  a  product  that  would  average  inferior  to  what 
we  make  now.  Besides,  our  people  generally  are  better  off  in 
worldly  goods  than  they  formerly  were,  and  therefore  naturally 
larger  consumers  of  all  kinds  of  fine  products.    We  should  there- 


20       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


fore  build  up  our  home  markets  by  providing  for  home  wants  and 
catering  to  home  tastes.  We  shall  thereby  secure  a  reliable  market 
at  steady  prices.  During  the  last  few  years  the  English  have  growled 
at  the  prices  of  our  cheese,  and  nothing  but  our  large  and  of  late,  I 
am  glad  to  say,  increasing  consumption  has  kept  up  the  price.  A 
foreign  market,  if  you  must  depend  on  it,  is  always  a  low  one.  It 
is  also  a  costly  one,  for  cost  and  risk  are  incurred  in  both  sending 
abroad  and  in  bringing  back  the  goods  that  we  buy  in  exchange. 
We  are  taxed  at  both  ends  and  in  the  middle,  by  the  traders  and 
transportationists.  True  economy  bids  us  supply  our  own  wants  as 
far  as  possible. 

But,  let  us  return  to  the  question  of  capacity  and  adaptability  of 
the  State  of  Missouri  for  dairying,  as  compared  with  the  leading 
dairy  State  of  the  Union — New  York.  I  have  compiled  a  short 
table  of  comparisons  from  the  last  census,  to  which  I  will  briefly 
call  your  attention : 

N.  T.  Mo. 

Acres  farm  lands,  -       -  23,780,754  27,879,276 

Improved  lands,  17,717,862  16,745,031 

Average  size  of  farms,  acres,         -       -  99  129 

Value  of  farms,     -  $1,056,176,741  $375>633>3°7 

Value  farm  implements,        -       -  42,592,741  18,103,074 

Value  farm  products,     -  178,025,695  95,912,660 

Bushels  barley,      -  7,792,062  123,031 

Bushels  buckwheat,       -       -     m-  4,461,200  57^4° 

Bushels  corn,        -  25,690,156  202,414,414 

Bushels  oats,         -  37\575>5°6  20,670,958 

Bushels  rye,  -  2, "634,690  535,426 

Bushels  wheat,  -       -  11,587,766  24,966,627 

Bushels  Irish  potatoes,  -  33,644,807  4,189,694 

Tons  hay,   5>24°<563  i>°77>458 

Sheep,   1,715,180  1,411,298 

Swine,   75I>9°7  4653>I23 

You  have  more  acres  of  farm  lands  and  nearly  as  many  im- 
proved ;  but  we  exceed  you  in  values,  because  of  a  higher  state  of 
improvement,  which  you  can  easily  attain.  With  higher  cultivation 
and  more  than  double  the  amount  of  machinery,  we  produce  nearly 
double  the  value  of  your  product.  But  you  more  than  double  us  in 
the  production  of  wheat ;  you  raise  eight  times  as  much  corn  as  we 
do ;  grow  one-fifth  as  much  hay  (and  would  probably  grow  more  if 
you  needed  it)  ;  keep  nearly  as  many  sheep,  and  six  times  as  many 
swine.  With  your  swine  as  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  dairy — with 
your  abundance  of  cheap  corn,  and  all  the  hay  you  want — what  is 
to  hinder  your  making  money  at  dairying?  It  is  conceded  that  no 
other  business  keeps  up  the  fertility  of  the  soil  as  well,  and  that  no 
other  lifts  a  mortgage  from  a  northern  farm  as  quickly.  Then  why 
may  you  not  prosper  in  dairying,  in  connection  with  mixed  farming  ? 
You  can  easily  produce  your  own  bread  and  your  feed  for  your  stock. 


Mississirn  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  21 


So  your  receipts  will  be  nearly  all  profits  and  reward  for  labor,  with 
comparatively  small  outgoes  for  machinery  and  manufactures.  Your 
flock  of  sheep  will  supply  your  clothing,  and  your  garden  and 
orchard  will  supply  you  with  vegetables  and  fruit.  The  last  census 
shows  your  orchard  product  to  have  been  valued  at  $1,812,873. 
This  is  nearly  one-quarter  the  value  of  the  fruit  product  of  the  old 
State  of  New  York,  which  was  $8,409,794.  Thus  it  appears  to 
me  that  you  have  nearly  everything  in  your  favor,  as  compared  with 
the  more  northern  States.  That  which  has  been  cited  against  you, 
your  higher  temperature,  is  actually  in  your  favor,  when  we  consider 
the  improved  modern  appliances  for  dairying. 

If  I  do  not  err  in  my  estimate,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  provide 
yourselves  with  the  best  dairy  stock,  select,  breed  and  rear  from  your 
best  animals,  always  feeding  liberal  and  properly  balanced  rations, 
to  succeed  at  least  as  well  as  any  other  State  in  the  Union.  You  must 
build  and  provide  appliances  with  the  view  of  controlling  tempera- 
tures, not  only  securing  an  even  temperature,  but  just  such  a  degree 
as  you  want.  This,  I  believe,  you  can  do  with  less  trouble  and  ex- 
pense the  year  round,  than  we  can  in  the  more  northern  States. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  indicate  what  fodder  crops  you  should 
grow — you  know  what  you  can  grow  better  than  I  do.  Besides, 
you  have  an  Agricultural  college  in  your  State,  at  the  head  of  which 
is  one  of  the  best  scientists  in  the  country.  Prof.  Sanborn  is  yet  a 
young  man,  but  he  always  has  his  eyes  open  and  his  wits  about  him, 
and  you  can  rely  on  him  for  advice,  if  you  need  any. 

I  judge  corn  will  be  a  great  reliance  with  you.  This  is  excel- 
lent— nothing  better — as  far  as  it  goes.  But  do  not  depend  upon  it 
wholly.  Few  foods,  when  given  alone,  are  sufficient.  Corn  is  far 
from  being  a  well-balanced  food.  There  is  too  large  a  proportion 
of  fat  and  heat-producing  ingredients  in  it.  Hence,  it  will  do  much 
better  in  cold  than  in  hot  weather,  and  with  cattle  much  exposed 
to  cold  weather  than  with  animals  well  housed.  Whether  fed  green, 
or  dried  or  ensilaged,  it  is  all  the  same,  and  needs  to  be  supple- 
mented with  clover,  middlings,  cotton-seed  meal,  oil-meal,  oats, 
barley,  or  other  more  nitrogenous  food,  that  will  supply  milk  and 
muscle-producing  materials.  There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  value 
of  corn-fodder,  depending  upon  how  it  is  grown  and  in  what  condition 
it  is  preserved.  It  is  not  at  its  best  unless  grown  in  hills  or  drills  far 
enough  apart  to  permit  the  ear  to  develop,  nor  if  cut  before  the  grain 
is  in  the  milk,  or  after  the  stalk  begins  to  ripen  and  looks  dead. 
Whether  dried  or  put  in  silo,  it  should  be  cut  between  these  two 
periods.  The  ear  is  just  as  much  out  of  balance,  as  a  food,  as  is  the 
stalk.  It  contains  too  much  heating  material  and  too  little  milk  and 
muscle-making  material.  Some  food  containing  an  excess  of  the 
latter,  must  be  fed  with  it.  The  composition  of  food  and  how  to 
compound  rations  so  as  to  have  them  properly  balanced,  you  can 
learn  from  the  feed  tables  which  science  has  given  to  the  world.  I 
do  not  know  where  you  can  get  them  in  cheaper  and  better  form 


22        Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


than  in  Prof.  E.  W.  Stewart's  new  book  on  "  Feeding  Animals," 
which  contains  a  vast  fund  of  information,  and  will  cost  you  two 
dollars. 

In  selecting  your  dairy  stock,  care  should  be  taken  to  get  such 
as  is  suited  to  dairy  purposes.  I  will  not  attempt  to  say  what  breed 
is  best — for  all  have  their  good  points,  and  in  all  are  good  dairy 
cows.  I  judge  the  Shorthorn  is  popular  here,  because  of  its  beef 
qualities.  Some  families  of  the  Shorthorns  are  excellent  milkers, 
giving  both  quantity  and  quality.  They  were  originally  great 
milkers;  but  have  been  bred  so  long  almost  exclusively  for  beef, 
that,  as  a  rule,  they  have  ceased  to  be  reliable  dairy  animals. 

The  Friesians  are  great  milkers — the  greatest  of  all ;  but  it  is 
claimed  that  their  milk  is  not  rich  in  butter,  though  it  gives  a  good 
yield  of  cheese.  I  know  of  Friesians  that  give  milk  rich  in  fat — 
milk  above  the  average  in  richness  ;  but  I  think  their  milk  will 
average  closely  with  the  Ayrshire,  while  the  fat  globule  of  the 
Friesian  milk  is  much  evener  in  size. 

The  Jersey  gives  milk  the  richest  in  fat  of  all  the  breeds,  but 
the  quantity  is  small,  as  well  as  the  cow.  She  ought  to  do  well 
in  your  climate. 

The  Devons  are  not  to  be  overlooked  as  a  dairy  stock.  Their 
milk  is  nearly  as  rich  as  the  Jerseys,  and  there  is  more  of  it.  I  give 
the  Friesians  and  Devons  the  first  rank  as  general  purpose  cows. 
There  is  a  fair  share  of  beef  in  both,  but  more  in  the  Friesian.  It 
is  poor  policy,  however,  to  keep  a  poor  dairy  cow  for  years  because 
in  the  end  she  will  sell  well  for  beef.  It  is  holding  beef  at  too  high 
a  cost.  Better  keep  a  cow,  worth  little  for  beef,  that  will  give  you 
$50  to  $75  a  year  in  dairy  product,  than  to  keep  a  beef  animal  that 
yields  only  $20  to  $30  a  year,  because  in  the  end  she  will  sell  for  a 
few  more  dollars.  Beef  should  be  turned  off  as  soon  as  it  is  ready 
for  market.  A  good  dairy  cow  will  keep  at  a  profit  as  long  as  her 
digestive  organs  remain  perfect  and  healthy. 

Whatever  breed  or  breeds  you  select,  be  sure  that  they  are 
adapted  to  your  line  of  dairying.  Don't  put  abutter  cow  to  cheese- 
making,  nor  a  cheese  cow  to  butter-making — for  in  both  cases  there 
will  be  loss. 

Again,  in  breeding,  always  breed  from  a  pure-blood  male,  and 
the  best  you  can  get.  By  this  means,  you  will  not  only  keep  up  the 
quality  of  your  herd,  but  in  time  have  a  practically  pure-blooded 
one  ;  and  if  you  are  careful  in  selecting  both  your  bull  and  the  calves 
you  raise — always  supposing  that  you  feed  and  shelter  properly — 
you  will  be  pretty  sure  to  improve  your  herd.  I  have  known  of 
herds  brought  up  in  this  way  from  a  yield  of  100  and  150  pounds  of 
butter  per  cow  annually,  to  250  and  300  pounds.  Of  course,  the 
yield  of  cheese  can  be  correspondingly  increased.  I  do  not  consider 
a  cow  really  profitable  if  she  does  not  turn  out  5,000  pounds  of 
milk  a  year,  of  good  quality. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  23 


Good  water  is  essential  in  the  dairy,  but  a  comparatively  small 
quantity  will  answer  the  purpose.  Whatever  goes  into  the  dairy 
product  must  be  free  from  deleterious  substances,  and  the  cows 
must  have  good  water  to  drink.  If  you  have  not  springs  and  streams 
that  will  furnish  a  supply  of  good  water,  wells  and  windmills,  I 
judge,  will  supply  the  deficiency.  If  these  fail,  prepare  a  cistern 
for  rain-water,  with  a  filter  in  it.  If  kept  clean,  this  will  furnish 
excellent  soft  water  for  drinking  purposes  and  for  use  in  the  dairy. 

In  conclusion,  permit  me  to  say  that  I  think  there  is  every  en- 
couragement for  going  into  dairying  in  Missouri.  It  is  one  of  the 
grandest  States  in  the  Union,  and  its  resources  are  far  from  half  de- 
veloped as  yet.  I  predict  that  it  will  one  day  equal  if  it  does  not 
lead  any  dairying  State  in  the  Union. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  essay,  a  number  of  delegates  desired 
to  ask  questions  pertaining  to  the  proper  feeding  of  dairy  cows ; 
ifcrat  as  the  day  was  far  advanced,  the  meeting  adjourned  to  meet 
again  at  seven  o'clock. 


24       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


EVENING  SESSION,  JANUARY  30, 


President  Colman  called  the  meeting  to  order  at  seven  o'clock. 
The  first  speaker  was  Prof.  Sanborn,  who  reported  thathe  had  been 
appointed  statistical  agent  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  the 
State.    He  said : 

Every  State  about  us  has  an  established  system  of  reports,, 
made  every  month  by  the  farmers,  of  the  condition  of  the  crops  in 
their  districts,  and  the  probable  yield.  It  has  not  been  established' 
in  this  State  as  yet,  and  I  would  like  as  many  farmers  as  can  to  send 
me  reports.  I  have  some  correspondents,  but  there  are  as  yet  some 
districts  not  covered.  The  blanks  for  the  reports  are  sent  out,  and  the 
postage  is  paid.  The  correct  reports  of  the  condition  of  crops  has 
become  a  matter  of  national  importance.  I  have  a  list  of  200  now, 
but  some  counties  are  not  reported. 

President  Colman — Before  the  adjournment,  we  were  discus- 
sing the  feeding  of  stock.  If  you  wish  to  continue  the  discussion, 
I  will  call  upon  some  of  those  present  to  give  us  their  views.  I  will 
call  upon  Mr.  D.  Douglas,  of  Jefferson  County,  Mo. 

Mr.  Douglas — I  have  no  regularity  about  the  kind  of  feed  I 
use,  that  I  know.  My  first  aim  is  to  get  all  the  good  grass  I  can. 
There  is  nothing  equal  to  good  grass  to  give  the  proper  flavor  to  the 
butter.  That  was  the  chief  reason  for  my  starting  my  dairy  where 
I  did.  I  wanted  a  locality  where  I  could  get  early  and  late  grasses. 
I  don't  use  corn  fodder.  I  tried  it  in  a  cured  state,  but  didn't  suc- 
ceed with  it.  I  use  bran  and  corn  meal  in  winter  time  ;  have  used 
cotton  seed,  but  without  good  results.  My  best  results  have  been 
with  hay  and  corn  meal  and  bran,  mixed.  I  have  never  tried  oat 
meal,  as  we  do  not  raise  oats,  and  the  meal  is  too  expensive.  One 
year,  I  know,  we  cultivated  corn ;  cut  and  cured  it  and  put  it  away 
in  the  barn,  and  I  found  when  I  turned  from  hay  to  corn  stalks  the 
cows  did  not  give  as  much  milk.  Since  then,  I  have  not  made  much 
effort  in  the  use  of  corn  fodder. 

Query — How  did  you  cure  your  corn  ? 

Ans. — Cut  it  in  the  field  and  hauled  it  up  when  dry.  Corn 
stalks  should  be  ripe  before  curing.  I  tried  feeding  green  corn 
during  a  drought.  The  cows  ate  it  rapidly,  but  I  found  it  did  not 
increase  the  flow  of  milk  one  atom,  though  it  increased  the  flow  of 
urine  wonderfully.  I  sowed  the  corn  broadcast ;  grew  it  thick,  and 
cut  it  before  it  eared. 

Query — When  was  the  corn  cut? 

Ans. — In  August. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  2fi 


Col.  Curtis — All  it  was  good  for,  then,  was  to  make  water? 

Mr.  Douglas — I  have  since  confined  myself,  during  drought  and 
in  winter,  to  hay  and  bran.  I  find  grasses  are  better  than  clover. 
Red  clover  will  give  you  a  soft,  spongy  butter,  with  much  water  in 
it  that  you  cannot  get  out.  It  is  a  fine  fertilizer,  but  is  not  good  to 
feed. 

Query — You  fed  nothing  but  clover? 

Ans. — I  did,  and  have  always  found  the  result  as  I  have  stated. 
I  don't  want  clover,  white  or  red,  about  my  place,  except  to  be  used 
as  a  fertilizer. 

Col.  Curtis — If  you  had  fed  some  cut  corn  stalks  with  the  clover, 
you  would  have  had  good  results. 

Mr.  Douglas — I  consider  timothy,  blue  top,  blue  grass  and 
orchard  grass  good  varieties.  Orchard  grass  will  furnish  the  best 
feed  for  cows.  Blue  grass,  I  think,  is  the  best  variety ;  but  it  dries 
up,  and  we  only  have  it  in  early  spring  and  fall. 

Col.  Curtis — But  won't  blue  grass  run  out? 

Ans. — I  think  it  will.  The  reason  I  think  a  little  south  of 
here  is  the  best  locality  for  a  dairy,  is  on  account  of  these  grasses. 
The  great  advantage  of  having  a  number  of  varieties  is,  that  they 
do  not  all  mature  at  once  ;  but  one  variety  follows  another  in  reach- 
ing maturity. 

Mr.  Drury,  of  Illinois,  said:  I  use  cut  sheaf  oats,  bran  and 
crushed  corn  and  clover  hay. 

Query — How  much  bran  do  you  feed  ? 

Mr.  Drury — I  mix  two-thirds  bran  and  one-third  corn.  When 
I  bring  my  cows  back  from  water,  I  always  give  them  a  small 
measure  of  dry  bran.  I  like  clover  hay  as  a  feed,  and  have  always 
got  good  results  from  it.  My  cows  are  Jerseys,  and  they  give  milk 
enough  to  make  a  pound  a  day  each.  I  think  it  is  best  to  have 
mixed  pastures.  I  sow  orchard,  timothy  and  blue  grass,  and  I  find 
the  cows  will  pick  out  the  orchard  and  blue  grass,  and  leave  the 
clover  till  the  last.  I  have  a  piece  of  grass  18  years  old.  I  would 
recommend  you  to  sow  your  orchard  grass  thick  (some  recommend 
two  bushels  to  the  acre)  ;  if  you  sow  it  thick,  there  is  no  danger  of  its 
running  to  tussocks.  Sow  about  ten  pounds  of  clover  seed  to  the 
acre  with  the  orchaid  grass. 

President  Colman — Have  you  tried  raising  corn  for  fodder? 

Ans. — No  sir.  I  feed  my  cows  twice  a  day,  in  summer,  with 
dry  bran. 

Query — Do  you  think  scalded  bran  better? 
Ans. — No ;  you  had  better  feed  it  dry. 

Profs.  Curtis,  Smith  and  Sanborn  did  not  beljeve  in  cooking 
food  for  cows. 

Mr.  Hobson,  of  Illinois — I  have  had  an  extensive  experience 
in  dairy  farming,  and  I  think  cooking  the  food  is  very  essential  to 
obtain  a  prolific  flow  of  milk.  Those  who  go  into  this  business 
should  study  the  locality.  Blue  grass  is  not  good  for  anything  where 


20 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


I  live.  I  have  a  monkey  prairie  soil.  It  makes  a  good  feed  in 
some  seasons.  It  is  good  in  May  and  June.  After  that  I  let  it  grow 
until  September,  when  I  turn  the  cattle  on.  Clover  and  timothy  are 
what  we  need,  and  for  piecing  out  in  a  time  of  drought  I  sow  corn. 
I  begin  about  June  ist,  and  sow  every  two  weeks.  I  plant  it  thick, 
aud  let  it  grow  to  near  the  nubbin  and  then  feed  it.  One  acre,  sown 
broadcast,  will  raise  a  good  crop.  Sweet  corn  is  the  better  variety. 
Sugar  cane  nas  been  recommended,  but  I  never  tried  it. 

The  reason  I  put  clover  and  timothy  together  is,  you  can't  cure 
clover  alone,  as  the  body  is  too  heavy.  Timothy  dries  easily,  and 
absorbs  the  superfluous  moisture  of  the  clover  and  dries  out  again. 
When  the  clover  is  properly  cured,  it  is  the  best  feed  I  can  get. 

Query — Wouldn't  orchard  grass  be  as  good  as  timothy? 

Ans. — I  have  had  no  experience,  and  cannot  say.  As  to  the 
quantity  to  be  fed,  I  will  say  I  think  the  cow's  bag  is  the  best  ther- 
mometer to  feed  by  that  can  be  found.  There  are  not  two  men  on 
my  place  that  eat  the  same  amount,  and  no  two  cows  ever  ate  the 
same  quantity.  You  don't  want  to  let  your  cow  fluctuate  in  the 
quantity  of  milk  she  gives.  If  she  fluctuates  either  way  there  is 
something  v/rong.  Over-feeding  will  dry  a  cow  up  quicker  than 
under-feeding.  Bran  will  give  milk  but  not  flesh.  If  you  can 
raise  other  things,  .don't  use  it.  It  may  do  in  Vermont  or  New 
York,  but  not  here  ;  let  it  alone.  While  they  raise  more  corn  and 
wheat  to  the  acre  in  the  east  than  I  can,  I  know  I  can  raise  it  cheaper. 

Query — Do  you  believe  in  cooking  food? 

Ans. — Yes ;  While  those  people  in  the  east  have  quit  it,  I 
I  think  it  will  pay  here.  In  New  York,  I  remember,  they  didn't 
dairy  in  the  winter.  They  have  a  more  even  climate  there,  which  is 
favorable  to  the  business.  Here  the  climatic  changes,  so  hard  upon 
the  man,  are  worse  upon  the  cows.  Practice  is  better  than  theory 
all  the  time.  Cooking  food  serves  to  build  up  the  cow  when  she  is 
inclined  to  give  down,  and  keeps  the  flow  of  milk  regular.  A  cow 
is  a  very  sensitive  animal.  She  has  been  likened  to  a  milk-making 
machine,  and  I  tell  you  she  is  the  most  delicate  machine  we  have  to 
deal  with.  I  know  of  dairies  where  you  would  not  be  allowed  to 
talk  loud  in  the  yards,  so  much  do  they  guard  against  alarming  the 
cows.  I  do  not  state  from  theory ;  I  state  from  facts  when  I  say 
that  cooking  food  is  better  for  the  cow.  I  know  a  man  who  said  it 
would  pay  to  feed  50  cents  corn  to  a  $4  hog.  He  had  tried  it,  but. 
didn't  weigh  either  the  corn  or  the  hog.  I  have  not  experimented 
that  way,  and  I  have  fed  all  kinds  of  feed — bran,  shock  corn  and 
everything.  You  want  to  give  the  cooked  food  at  the  same  tem- 
perature every  day.  I  feed  corn,  cobs  and  all.  While  I  don't  sup- 
pose there  is  a  man  in  the  room  that  will  agree  with  me,  I  say  I 
would  as  soon  have  cobs  and  all  as  simply  shelled  corn.  The  cow, 
as  I  said,  is  a  machine.  Graham  flour  will  regulate  a  man  and 
keep  his  digestion  good.  The  cob  will  regulate  the  cow.  I  always 
grind  the  cobs  fine — it  doesn't  do  to  chop  them.    I  use  a  mill 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  27 


adapted  to  this  purpose.  The  Little  Giants  won't  do  any  good. 
You  might  as  well  use  a  pestal  and  mortar.  I  am  not  a  butter 
maker  or  a  cheese  maker.  I  ship  milk,  and  am  paid  for  that  milk, 
according  to  the  richness  of  it ;  but  I  ship  it,  regardless  of  its 
butter-producing  qualities. 

As  to  stock :  I  began  dairying  with  a  mixed-up  lot,  and  have 
found  that  the  breed  is  in  the  feed.  I  would  rather  have  a  corn 
crib  and  a  hay  mow  than  the  best  herd  in  the  country.  I  wouldn't 
have  a  Jersey  for  milk.  There  is  much  discussion  as  to  the  proper 
breed  for  the  business,  and  there  has  been  much  said  about  a  "gen- 
eral purpose  "  cow.  You  can't  get  an  extraordinary  cow  in  every  way 
in  one  animal.  We  want — and  Short  Horns  will  never  be  beat — to 
breed  from  a  milking  family.  Holsteins  are  coming  up  and  are 
really  good.  I  used  to  have  a  Short  Horn — to  illustrate  the  differ- 
ence in  cows — that  was  just  as  pretty  as  a  picture,  but  wouldn't  give 
any  milk.  Another  common  looking  beast  was  the  finest  milker 
I  had. 

Mr.  Piersol,  of  Monroe  City,  Mo. — Sometimes  we  learn  a 
business  by  success,  and  sometimes  by  a  failure.  I  have  been  in 
Missouri  eighteen  years,  and  have  been  thirty-six  years  in  the  busi- 
ness. The  greatest  difficulty  I  have  had  to  contend  with  is  droughts. 
I  have  tried  many  ways  to  get  over  it  without  shrinkage.  My  farm 
was  a  newly-seeded  meadow — seeded  to  timothy  and  clover.  I  found 
that  when  it  ripened  and  dried  down  that  there  was  nothing  to  feed. 
I  had  a  pasture  in  which  blue  grass  was  sown.  I  did  not  let  any- 
thing in  it  after  May.  The  dry  spell  came  on  about  August  31, 
and  I  turned  my  cattle  o,n  the  blue  grass  pasture.  They  did  not 
shrink  a  bit.  I  think  this  is  the  best  method  I  have  found.  Next  to 
that,  I  think  green  cut  timothy  and  clover  is  the  feed.  I  have  used 
a  mixture  of  rye,  oats  and  corn  ;  grind  it  all  together  and  feed  it. 
The  blue  grass,  when  it  grows  up,  falls  down  and  covers  the  roots. 
I  have  found  red  top  to  be  the  best  grass  for  summer  time.  Mixed 
clover  and  timothy  is  the  best  for  hay,  cut  green.  I  have  repeated 
this  time  and  again.  I  have  not  tried  orchard  grass.  You  should 
not  cut  hay  too  early.  In  timothy,  you  should  cut  when  the  blossom 
comes  and  the  head  begins  to  brown.  If  cut  too  early  it  will  spoil 
in  the  stack.  I  keep  clover  down  in  the  spring,  and  let  it  grow  up 
and  ripen  with  the  timothy.  I  have  charge  of  a  creamery,  and  have 
20  to  30  cows.  During  the  past  season  we  nearly  had  a  failure  in 
August  and  September,  because  the  farmers  were  not  prepared. 

Mr.  Lourterman,  of  Illinois — The  question  of  locality  is  a 
serious  one  to  be  considered  in  establishing  a  dairy  farm  ;  and  when 
established,  the  needs  should  be  carefully  studied.  Two  or  three 
years  ago  I  tried,  on  my  place,  feeding  Jerusalem  artichoke.  It 
doesn't  make  the  tuber  until  late  in  September;  but  that  makes  no 
difference,  as  you  feed  the  blossom.  I  have  been  using  it  ever 
since,  and  find  enough  tubers  to  seed  the  ground  with.  While  I 
was  feding  this  the  cows  gave  a  fair  quality  of  milk,  from  which  we 


28 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  op  the  Meeting  of  the 


made  good  butter.  The  tuber  produces  a  good  color  and  flavor  in 
the  butter. 

Mr.  Sawyer — You  have  heard  much  about  the  dry  season,  and 
I  tell  you  you  will  learn  before  five  years  how  to  tide  over  these 
seasons — I  mean  with  ensilage.  I  have  a  small  silo  on  my  placeT 
and  I  brought  some  samples  that  I  made  last  season.  They  have 
been  pronounced  by  experienced  men  good  specimens,  though  not 
strictly  first  class.  This  is  the  way  I  work  it:  I  sow  in  the  fall  a 
small  crop  of  rye.  By  June  it  will  be  ready  to  go  into  the  silo,  and 
I  cut  it  and  put  it  in.  This  gives  two  months  for  it  to  remain  there. 
When  I  began  feeding  it  to  my  cows  they  increased  in  milk.  When 
your  corn  is  ready  to  put  in  the  silo  the  rye  is  out.  The  rye  should 
be  grown  while  the  cows  are  in  the  pasture.  I  am  afraid  I  am 
taking  too  much  of  your  time,  but  I've  got  the  fever  bad. 

He  was  asked  to  continue,  and  said :  .  Mr.  Hobson  spoke  of 
bran.  Now,  I'll  tell  you :  Two  or  three  weeks  ago  one  of  my 
cows  did  not  feel  well  and  would  not  eat  her  ensilage.  I  fed  her 
some  bran,  and  then,  after  a  while,  she  ate  some  ensilage,  and  it 
wasn't  very  long  before  she  was  eating  just  the  same  as  before. 

Mr.  Thompson,  of  Missouri — Prof.  Sanborn,  have  you  ever 
seen  ensilage  fed  in  summer? 

Prof.  Sanborn — I  have,  and  the  cows  eat  it  in  preference  to 
hay.  The  ensilage  question  is  quite  an  open  one.  I  have  seen 
much  of  its  use,  but  have  not  experimented  directly  with  it.  Most 
advocates  of  ensilage  are  extremists,  and  will  not  listen  to  any  other 
side  of  the  subject;  but,  in  a  word,  it  is  feeding  six  pounds  of  water 
to  one  pound  of  fodder.  Cooking  food  has  been  referred  to,  and  I 
feel  like  entering  my  protest  to  it.  It  is  not  profitable.  If  anything 
has  ever  been  demonstrated  it  is  this.  If  you  review  the  history  of 
amateur  farming  you  will  find  the  cooking  of  food  a  pet  hobby.  I 
visited  the  farm  of  Hon.  Mr.  Cochrane,  in  Kansas.  He  has  four  cows 
worth  $125,000.  I  saw  near  the  stable  a  chimney  like  a  smelting 
furnace  stack.  They  had  formerly  cooked  their  feed  there,  but 
abortion  and  sickness  resulted.  They  had  to  send  all  the  way  to 
Denver  for  a  veterinary  surgeon.  A  man  with  four  cows  worth 
$125,000  won't  cling  to  a  hobby  or  a  chimney  very  long  when  he 
sees  they  are  not  the  right  things.  There  have  been  scientists  who 
have  given  years  of  study  to  this  thing — the  fermentation  of  food, 
etc.  ;  and  the  general  verdict  is :  it  does  not  pay.  It  was  tried  very 
thoroughly  at  the  Maine  Agricultural  College.  I  used  to  have  a 
great  many  pet  notions,  but  when  I  began  experimenting  I  found  I 
had  to  give  up  those  notions.  I  used  to  believe  that  hay  ought  to 
be  cut  early.  It  is  sweet,  like  cake,  and  cows  will  eat  of  it  largely. 
You  will  find  that  when  you  begin  to  give  the  cow  late  cut  hay, 
after  having  fed  her  the  early  cut,  she  will  not  eat  more  than  two- 
thirds  her  usual  rations ;  but  will  eat  more  the  next  week,  more  the 
third,  and  so  on  to  the  maximum.  The  experiments  of  the  Maine 
Agricultural  College  extended  over  seven  years.   They  tried  cooked 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


29 


and  uncooked  meal,  and  found  it  all  on  one  side.  Now,  on  the 
■question  of  crushing:  I  wouldn't  give  a  dollar  for  all  the  crushers 
in  the  country.  We  want  burr  meal.  Use  the  corn  cracker  first 
and  then  the  mill.  I  use  the  meal  as  fine  for  my  stock  as  for  myself. 
Do  not  feed  a  young  pig  anything  coarse  ;  always  grind  the  fodder. 
I  do  not  feed  the  cobs  with  corn,  as  the  results  of  my  experiments 
•do  not  justify  me.  As  to  corn  fodder :  I  put  three  sets  of  cows  in 
pasture  on  hay  and  corn  fodder,  and  weighed  the  milk.  I  found  it 
was  better  to  feed  the  dry  fodder  at  the  bin,  and  it  was  cheaper. 
There  is  too  much  labor  connected  with  the  handling  of  the  wet 
fodder. 

Senator  Morse,  of  Jefferson  County — What  do  you  consider 
"early"  and  "late"  cut  hay? 

Ans. — I  call  it  "early"  when  cut  while  in  bloom,  and  "late" 
when  cut  after  the  seeds  have  begun  to  form.  It  will  seed  after  it 
is  cut,  and  should  not  be  allowed  to  mature.  The  seed  of  the  hay 
goes  through  the  cow  undigested ;  so  the  hay  should  be  cut  when 
the  seed  is  in  the  dough  stage.  It  has  been  held  that  hay  does  not 
increase  after  it  blooms.  I  have  found  it  increasing  as  much  as  40 
per  cent.  You  can  try  the  same  experiment  by  laying  out  alternate 
plots  40  rods  wide  and  weighing  the  product  honestly. 

Col.  Curtis — If  the  seed  forms  it  exhausts  the  root  of  the 
plant. 

Ans. — I  do  not  think  so.  I  have  heard  that  a  timothy  field 
will  be  injured  at  the  roots  if  cut  before  maturity. 

Hiram  Smith — Late  cut  hay  may  prove  richer,  but  it  is  not 
more  nutritious. 

Prof.  Sanborn — I  claim  it  is  though  I  am  opposed  to  other 
scientists.  Starch,  sugar  and  gum  converted  into  woody  fibre,  are 
not  lost,  but  only  changed  in  position  and  improved.  We  used  to 
think  a  plant  got  its  full  development  early.  I  have  had  experi- 
ments with  10  cows,  and  from  these  I  have  had  answers  to  my 
questions.  I  would  not  advise  late  cut  hay  for  butter,  early  cut  hay 
colors  it  better.  A  quart  of  milk  made  from  hay  out  of  bloom  will 
make  more  butter  than  hay  in  bloom. 

Mr.  Adams,  of  Missouri — I  have  cooked  feed  for  five  years, 
and  I  think  that  it  pays.  The  feed  costs  J  cent  more  when  cooked 
than  otherwise.    I  have  tried  soiling  corn  and  like  it. 

Mr.  Douglas,  of  Missouri — I  remember  the  time — in  the  thirties 
— there  was  a  universal  desire  for  everybody  to  have  steaming  boxes. 
They  went  into  it  more  generally  than  they  build  silos  now.  That 
was  the  way  they  put  water  in  the  food.  I  am  afraid  of  ensilage  and 
have  never  used  it. 

President  Colman  then  changed  the  subject  of  discussion  by 
calling  on  Mr.  J.  B.  Thompson,  of  La  Plata,  Mo.,  to  speak  on 
Co-operative  Dairying. 

Mr.  Thompson — I  had  not  prepared  an  address,  but  I  was  given 
notice  by  your  Secretary  after  I  came  here  that  I  would  be  expected 


30        Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


to  address  you.  I  have  noticed,  since  I  came,  that  the  tendency  of  the 
discussions  has  been  to  feed,  and  little  has  been  said  of  creameries, 
that  feature  of  the  business  that  is  growing  so  largely  and  becoming 
such  a  factor  in  connection  with  our  farming  interests.  In  our 
creamery  we  make  good  butter,  not  perhaps,  gilt- edge,  not  as  good 
perhaps,  as  the  best  Elgin  butter,  for  within  the  bounds  of  that 
Association  there  is  more  experience.  All  the  creameries  in 
Missouri  are  young  and  new ;  the  industry  of  butter  and  cheese 
making  obtains  but  little  attention,  except  in  the  farm  houses.  The 
business  is  carelessly  carried  on ;  but  we  are  moving,  I  believe,  and 
will  eventually  succeed  in  perfecting  our  creamery  system.  It  is 
progressing  even  in  unfavorable  localities ;  take  for  instance  Saline 
County,  where  they  raised  last  year  100  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre, 
they  are  progressing.  I  wouldn't  like  to  go  into  a  business  in  which 
nobody  had  failed,  I  only  want  some  facts  and  experience  that 
others  have  gotten.  The  markets  are  flooded  with  imitations  of 
butter  in  spite  of  the  strictest  laws.  Personal  honesty  must  be  the 
guaranty  of  the  good  quality  of  every  pound  of  butter  sold.  No 
matter  how  poor  a  man  is  he  wants  good  butter,  and  you  would 
rather  take  a  pound  of  butter  from  a  maker  you  knew  to  be  a  suc- 
cessful maker  of  butter;  you  never  knew  of  any  one  to  call  for  bad 
butter.  The  question,  though,  is  how  to  get  it  to  the  consumer 
who  does  not  know  the  maker.  Oleomargarine  has  the  start  of  us. 
I  saw  some  in  a  restaurant  this  morning,  I  asked  the  proprietor 
what  kind  of  butter  he  used.  "Ohio  Dairy,"  he  said,  he  paid  25 
cents  a  pound  for  it.  I  told  him  what  it  was  and  offered  to  sell 
him  some  real  good  butter.  "What  guaranty  have  I  that  your  but- 
ter is  better  than  this,"  was  his  question.  There  is  the  hitch,  Elgin, 
Ills.,  is  in  the  center  of  a  vast  number  of  dairies,  they  have  a 
regular  exchange  and  sales  of  the  products  which  are  inspected  and 
marked  with  the  inspectors  guaranty.  The  sales  on  'Change 
amounted  to  $42,000  in  a  single  day,  and  these  sales  were  at  prices 
a  long  way  ahead  of  our  butter.  I  wondered  why  this  was  and 
finally  I  came  across  the  following  extract  from  a  speech  delivered 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Association : 

"In  1876  or  1877  Dr.  Phelps  objected  to  sending  any  more 
butter  on  commission,  as  we  were  continually  being  swindled. 
Well,  what  were  we  to  do  while  so  many  dealers  were  working 
against  us  and  would  not  even  visit  us  and  see  what  we  had  and 
were  doing.  But  we  went  to  work  and  advertised,  wrote  up  the 
subject  of  dairy  interests  and  what  we  were  doing  and  published  it 
in  our  local  papers  and  in  the  Chicago  papers.  Discussed  the  sub- 
ject among  the  farmers  and  at  school  houses  got  people  interested. 
The  farmers  bought  cows  and  our  business  increased,  and  just  as 
we  were  about  to  send  out  a  salesman  to  sell  butter  and  cheese  by 
samples,  three  or  four  dealers  came  in  from  St.  Louis  and  bought 
all  we  had.  We  published  the  sales  and  at  the  next  meeting  other 
dealers  came  and  bought,  and  so  on.    In  1S72,  when  our  member- 


Mississippi  Vllley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  .  31 


ship  was  only  twelve,  we  sold  $Si,ooo  worth  of  butter  and  cheese. 
In  1873,  we  sold  $219,177.53,  and  in  1882  we  sold  $2,752,231.56, 
making  over  $2,750,000  worth  of  butter  and  cheese  for  1SS2  ;  com- 
mission on  this  at  5  per  cent,  would  be  $13,750  for  one  year  saved 
by  the  board  of  trade.  Remember,  in  addition  to  this,  the  several 
towns  north,  east,  south  and  west  are  sending  to  Chicago  daily 
S,ooo  to  10,000  gallons  of  milk,  besides  the  5,000  or  6,000  gallons 
condensed  milk  by  the  several  factories  near  us." 

The  subject  of  dairy  farming  in  this  State  has  been  given  a 
strong  impetus,  given  us  by  the  papers  of  the  country  in  doing  like- 
wise. Is  it  possible  to  part  with  such  support.  Last  year  we  made 
200  lbs.  of  butter,  where  this  year  we  will  make  1000.  Our  market  is 
limited,  and  as  creameries  are  being  established  around  us  we  will 
have  to  find  means  of  extending  that  market.  We  will  have  to 
organize,  have  an  exchange  and  sell  with  the  brand  of  the  Asso- 
ciations upon  our  product.  The  markets  of  the  world  should  be 
open  to  us.  Look  at  the  map  and  see  how  small  a  portion  is 
adaptable  to  the  need  of  this  business.  It  was  formerly  the  custom 
for  every  farmer  to  make  his  own  soap  and  sell  some  of  it,  too,  now 
who  thinks  of  buying  anything  but  factory  soap.  After  a  while  all 
the  butter  will  be  made  in  creameries ;  creamery  butter  is  sold  too 
high.  A  friend  of  mine  told  me  he  paid  50  cents  a  pound  for  it ; 
he  should  not  have  paid  more  than  32  cents,  the  other  18  cents  was 
for  integrity,  and  the  jobber  got  it.  We  must  deal  more  directly 
with  our  consumers,  and  if  we  cannot  succeed  in  this  the  whole 
system  must  fail.  Why  can  we  not  have  refrigerator  cars  on  the 
railroads  to  run  from  one  creamery  to  another.  We  sent  our 
product  to  market  last  year  in  a  refrigerator  car  for  50  cents,  where 
before  it  had  cost  $1.50. 

Col.  Curtis — The  refrigerator  car  problem  is  easy  enough,  let 
the  railroad  companies  know  you  want  the  cars  and  you'll  get  them. 

Mr.  Addy,  of  New  York — We  get  butter  from  the  farthest 
corners  of  Missouri  into  New  York  City  in  better  condition  than 
from  the  central  portion  of  New  York.  Four  years  ago  foreign 
export  was  not  satisfactory.  A  Yankee  tried  the  experiment  of 
a  refrigerator  section  in  the  hold.  It  was  a  success,  and  now  every 
ocean-going  steamer  has  a  refrigerator.  Our  butter  is  now  the 
first  in  the  European  markets,  if  it  were  not  so  there  would  be  a 
disastrous  over-production.  There  never  has  been  a  time  when 
good  butter  would  not  sell ;  co-operative  dairying  is  a  good  plan  : 
there  is  no  other  way  to  work  successfully.  Two  men  will  do  the 
work  of  200  women,  and  do  it  better.  There  has  been  butter  sold 
here  by  the  car  load  for  7  and  8  cents  a  pound,  and  the  milk  from 
which  it  was  made  was  just  as  good  as  that  which  made  30  and  40 
cent  butter.  Large  failures  in  this  business  result  from  trying  to 
take  too  large  a  bite  of  the  cherry.  A  man  who  runs  four  or  five 
teams  collecting  his  milk  at  a  cost  of  5c.  a  pound  will  fail.  In 
Wisconsin,  where  butter  sells  from  32  to  40  cents  a  pound,  the 


32 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


winter  comes  early,  stopping  the  operations.  Here  winter  dairying 
ought  to  be  the  specialty,  as  it  is  possible  to  run  the  winter  through, 
you  have  the  end  in  the  winter  and  the  worth  in  the  summer. 
Better  butter  is  made  in  the  west  than  in  the  east,  though  it  was 
once  thought  impossible  to  make  butter  west  of  the  Alleghaneys. 
Chicago  is  the  best  butter  market  in  the  world,  but  creamery  butter 
has  no  chance  there,  it  is  kept  at  such  a  high  price  by  the  schemes 
of  the  butterine  manufacturers,  that  it  cannot  be  sold.  The  Elgin 
people  have  got  themselves  into  bad  favor  by  doctoring  their 
market,  they  have  orders  from  New  Orleans  at  the  ruling  price. 
A  offers  10  tubs  of  butter  at  35  cents ;  B  buys  it  and  sells  it  to  C  at 
an  advance,  and  when  the  price  comes  back  to  A  the  matter  is 
adjusted  and  the  price  is  run  up  from  35  to  50  cents  without  a  single 
actual  sale  of  butter.  All  Elgin  butter  does  not  go  out  under  one 
brand,  it  comes  from  anywhere,  and  is  sold  by  sample.  You  never 
see  the  irregular  sales  quoted,  only  the  regular.  In  New  York 
they  have  a  law  that  all  imitations  of  butter  must  be  marked  with 
two  inch  letters.  The  manufacturers  get  around  this  by  stamping 
their  butter  firkins  with  two  inch  letters  as  thin  as  a  hair.  The 
butter  goes  to  a  dealer,  the  firkin  is  knocked  off  and  the  butter 
stands  unmarked  upon  a  slab. 

Butter  is  never  so  good  as  when  fresh,  and  the  better  it  is  the 
more  will  be  consumed.  The  trouble  in  this  business  is  getting 
too  deep  into  it.  It  doesn't  take  a  pot  of  money  to  run  a  creamery. 
The  man  who  sells  you  the  outfit  will  sell  you  what  he  can.  You 
don't  want  a  house  big  enongh  for  five  hundred  cows  when  you 
have  a  hundred. 

As  the  hour  of  ten  had  arrived  the  meeting  adjourned,  to  meet 
again  next  morning  at  nine  o'clock. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  33 


SECOND  MORNING  SESSION,  JANUARY  31, 


Mr.  Douglas,  of  Missouri — My  knowledge  has  been  gained 
through  experience.  You  have  been  well  posted  as  to  the  analysis 
of  feed,  etc.  ;  but  in  order  to  have  you  fully  understand  the  system 
of  making  butter  south  of  here,  you  ought  to  know  something  of  its 
history.  I  commenced  in  this  business  at  a  very  early  age,  and 
while  a  mere  boy  froze  my  thumb  while  milking.  I  was  born  in 
Vermont,  but  if  I  had  had  my  choice  I  would  have  been  born  in 
Boston.  When  I  grew  up  I  went  to  New  York  to  buy  buttter. 
They  made  butter  there  as  white  as  lard,  and  very  bitter.  This  they 
kept  until  fall,  and  then  they  would  sell  it  to  the  buyer,  who  came 
around  trying  and  buying  the  stuff.  This  was  the  first  system  of 
co-operative  dairies.  Previous  to  that  time  the  farmer  would  bring 
his  product  to  the  country  store  for  sale.  In  1857  I  came  to  St. 
Louis  to  sell  New  York  butter  in  this  market.  I  could  get  no 
good  butter  except  in  Ohio  at  that  time.  In  1858  I  went  into  the 
butter  region  of  Illinois  and  bought  100  lb.  packages  near  Galena 
at  4c  a  lb.,  delivered  in  St.  Louis.  They  were  then  packing  the 
butter  in  boxes  and  kegs.  I  commenced  advising  them  to  dairy 
pack  it.  I  had  circulars  printed,  giving  instructions  for  making  and 
packing  good  butter,  and  had  my  buyer  distribute  them.  It  did  me 
a  great  deal  of  good.  They  made  good  butter,  and  I  bought  it 
cheaply.  By  educating  the  people  I  succeeded  in  getting  a  good 
quality  of  butter  before  creameries  were  started.  Some  years  later 
they  organized  the  Northwestern  Dairymen's  Association,  and  one 
of  my  buyers  was  the  originator  of  the  scheme.  So  much  was  I 
interested  in  the  growth  of  the  butter  industry  they  used  to  tell  me 
my  nose  became  crooked  from  smelling  butter.  In  1874  I  deter- 
mined to  buy  a  farm  and  make  butter.  No  butter,  it  was  said,  could 
be  made  south  of  a  line  rnuning  from  Northern  Pennsylvania  below 
the  Western  Reserve  of  Ohio  and  Northern  Indiana.  I  never  be- 
lieved that,  and  only  considered  my  surroundings  in  purchasing  my 
farm  in  Jefferson  county.  There  are  three  streams  running  through 
it,  and  there  is  no  pasture,  field  or  lot,  that  has  not  a  stream  on  it. 
I  commenced  with  the  large  pan  system  in  my  dairy  house.  I 
constructed  wooden  tanks,  8  feet  long,  4  feet  wide  and  a  foot 
deep ;  pans,  7J  feet  long  and  2  feet  wide,  set  in  the  water ;  the 
pans  were  provided  with  tight  covers,  so  I  could  submerge  them 
and  bring  the  milk  to  the  temperature  of  the  water.  I  flow  water 
from  a  stream  through  the  tanks,  and  use  neither  jars  nor  ice.  The 
temperature  of  the  water  is  always  even,  and  from  one  year's  end 
to  the  other  we  don't  have  a  pound  of  spongy  butter.    It  is  as  uni- 


34       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


form  as  it  can  be,  with  varying  feed.  I  bought,  for  stock,  16  Jer- 
seys and  grade  Jerseys,  in  Kentucky.  I  have  always  received  50c 
a  pound  for  my  butter. 

The  necessity  for  creameries  has  been  warmly  urged ;  but  I 
think  the  man  who  cares  to,  can  make  better  butter  in  a  dairy.  It 
is  less  expensive  to  churn  the  milk  of  50  cows  than  to  take  it  to 
a  creamery.  A  child  15  or  16  years  old  can  care  for  the  milk. 
Cultivation  of  grasses  is  the  most  important  part  of  dairy  farming. 
If  you  have  good  stock,  good  grass,  and  keep  everything  about 
you  sweet  and  clean,  you  can't  help  making  good  butter.  You 
should  cultivate  a  great  variety  of  grasses,  that  they  may  mature  at 
varying  times.  My  principal  object  in  locating  in  the  south  was,  I 
knew  I  could  get  two  months  more  feeding  there  than  anywhere 
else.  You  can  make  good  butter  ftom  dry  feed,  but  it  will  not 
equal  that  made  from  grasses,  either  in  odor  or  in  color.  I  don't 
use  coloring  matter,  though  I  don't  object  to  its  use.  There  is  a 
prejudice  against  it  in  my  trade,  and  generally.  All  farms  are  not 
as  well  supplied  with  springs  as  mine,  but  it  is  likely  there  is  a  good 
well  on  the  place,  and  a  windmill,  and  large  tanks  can  be  used. 
The  water  will  not  materially  change  its  temperature  in  24  hours. 
If  there  is  no  well,  and  he  has  the  side  of  a  hill,  he  can  use  Prof. 
Wilkinson's  idea — a  cold  air  duct  into  the  dairy-house  through  the 
hill. 

Prof.  Sanborn — Are  there  any  houses  built  on  that  plan  ? 

Some,  I  think,  in  Illinois.  The  air  is  conducted  through  a  pas- 
sage in  the  earth,  and  is  cool  in  summer  and  warm  in  winter.  If 
you  have  no  hill-side,  you  may  construct  the  walls  of  your  dairy- 
house  double,  with  three  air  chambers  made  as  tight  as  possible. 
Valves  at  the  top  may  be  opened  at  night  and  closed  during  the  day. 
The  air  will  not  heat  rapidly,  but  will  keep  the  rooms  cool.  These 
ways  of  keeping  the  dairy-house  cool  effect  the  same  result,  and  no 
matter  which  is  used,  good  butter  may  be  made  if  you  manage  cor- 
rectly. I  have  built  my  house  into  a  hill-side,  and  the  walls  are 
constructed  with  air  chambers  of  cement  half  way  up.  I  find,  in 
summer,  it  is  cool  enough  with  the  windows  open.  The  tempera- 
ture never  rises  above  70  degrees,  or  goes  below  40.  I  would  not 
advise  any  similar  system,  nor  would  I,  if  I  was  starting  in  the 
business,  adopt  any  system  of  the  sort.  There  is  a  better  way — a 
Danish  invention  called  the  centrifugal  separator.  The  milk  is  put 
in  and  whirled  around,  as  soon  as  it  comes  from  the  cow,  the  butter 
globules  separating  from  the  milk.  From  10  to  12  per  cent,  more 
butter  is  obtained  in  this  way.  Our  milk  is  nearly  all  from  Jerse}'S, 
and  the  yield  was  15. 1  lbs.  milk  to  1  lb.  butter. 

You  have  been  advised  of  the  necessity  of  getting  the  right 
kind  of  stock,  and  I  would  impress  the  value  of  this  item 
on  you.  I  never  made  cheese  in  my  life,  and  little  has  been 
made  near  here,  because  there  are  no  curing  houses,  though 
they  ought  to  be  constructed.    The  houses  are  mostly  of  rough 


Mississippi  Valley  Daity  and  Creamery  Association.  35 


boards,  and  so  general  are  the  failures  the  dealers  think  a  fine- 
flavored  cheese  cannot  be  made  in  this  locality.  The  centri- 
fugal machine,  of  which  I  spoke,  can  be  set  in  a  corner  of  the 
building.  It  works  like  a  top,  and  makes  about  5,000  revolutions  a 
minute.  As]  the  disk  revolves  the  milk  flies  off  the  surface,  and 
the  cream  flows  down  the  center.  The  owner  of  the  largest  herd 
in  New  Jersey — has  100  cows,  worth  $1,000  each — has  adopted  it, 
and  says  he  gets  from  10  to  12  per  cent,  more  butter  than  by  the 
other  system.  The  increased  quantity  of  butter  in  an  average  dairy 
will  pay  for  the  machine  in  three  months.  The  smallest  costs  $250, 
and  will  work  up  600  pounds  of  milk  in  an  hour.  With  this  ma- 
chine, you  can  dispense  with  expensive  buildings,  etc.  If  I  was 
going  to  start  a  creamery  I  would  not  be  without  this  machine. 

Query — Is  the  centrifugal  machine  applicable  here? 

Mr'  Douglas — I  know  only  this :  you  can  run  your  milk  either 
warm  or  cold,  sour  or  sweet. 

Prof.  Sanborn — Carted  milk  can  be  better  handled  by  a  cen- 
trifugal machine  than  by  any  other  system.  Experiments  show  that 
a  much  larger  per  centage  of  butter  can  be  obtained  by  this  means. 

Query — Do  you  raise  your  calves  on  sweet  milk? 

Mr.  Douglas — The  first  month  I  give  them  sweet  milk ;  then 
mixed  sweet  and  poor  milk.    I  never  feed  them  sour  milk. 

Mr.  Sawyer,  of  Illinois — I  would  like  to  know  if  any  one 
present  has  heard  anything  against  the  centrifugal  machine.  We 
have  heard  nothing  here  but  praises  of  it,  and  if  there  are  any  ob- 
jections to  it  I  would  be  glad  to  hear  them.  My  reading  of  it,  too, 
has  all  been  on  one  side. 

There  were  no  answers  to  the  inquiry. 

Senator  Morse,  of  southern  Missouri,  was  introduced  by  the 
President,  and  said : 

I  saw  a  notice  of  this  meeting  in  a  paper,  and  though  I  had 
not  been  invited  I  came  out  of  curiosity.  You  have  heard  lots 
about  latitude,  and  it  used  to  be  said  that  good  butter  could  not  be 
made  out  of  the  38th  or  37th  parallel.  I  was  born  in  Massachu- 
setts, and  came  here  in  November,  1837,  when  a  young  man,  and  I 
think  I  am  quite  a  young  man  yet.  Since  '37  I  have  lived  in 
southern  Missouri,  which  is,  as  you  know,  a  high  rolling  country. 
No  State  in  the  Union  has  a  better  interior  water  system  than  Mis- 
souri, and  no  State  has  the  same  amount  of  water  power.  This  is 
a  country  especially  adapted  to  the  dairying  interests.  While  Mis- 
souri has  ever  been  one  of  the  United  Ststes,  it  has  not  always  con- 
tained a  united  people.  The  building  and  the  growth  of  the  State 
has  been  chiefly  in  the  northern  portion,  and  the  people  have  been 
educated  to  believe  the  southern  part  of  the  State  contained  nothing 
good.  We  have  no  hotter  weather  than  they  have  in  Massachusetts. 
There  is  no  finer  country  anywhere  than  Jefferson,  Franklin,  Wash- 
ington, and  a  few  other  counties,  nor  a  country  better  adapted  to 
making  butter.  There  is  grass  to  be  had  in  spring,  good  hay  ,  good  corn 


3G 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


fodder — all  combining  to  make  good  butter.  The  way  to  feed  corn 
is  to  plant  it  in  April,  May  and  June  ;  cut  it  when  it  is  of  the  proper 
size,  and  then  let  it  dry  in  the  field  till  all  the  water  is  out  of  it. 
Cows,  you  will  find,  never  run  away  from  early-cut  hay,  but  they 
might  from  late-cut  hay.  In  this  dairy  business,  there  is  one  thing  we 
lack,  and  that  is  education.  Our  boys  think  it  is  degrading  to  milk, 
and  our  girls  think  it  is  beneath  their  dignity  to  care  for  the  milk. 
They  should  be  taught  what  it  takes  to  make  a  dollar,  and  what  it 
is  worth  when  it  is  made.  Option  deals,  commission  for  handling 
produce,  bank  requisites,  are  simply  thefts  from  the  laborer.  We 
are  too  little  an  exporting  people,  and  too  much  an  importing  people. 
The  increased  population  gets  away  with  the  increased  dairy  pro- 
duct. Soap  grease  has  always  been  an  exportable  commodity,  and 
if  the  snobs  want  it  for  butter  let  them  have  it,  but  here  at  home 
the  people  want  good  butter. 

This  is  a  grand,  good  country,  and  the  rate  of  its  increase  in 
population  is  marvelous.  I  was  a  wagon  boy  when  there  wasn't  a 
railroad  in  the  country,  and  rode  on  the  first  road  ever  built  here. 
In  1861  there  were  30,000  miles  of  rails,  and  in  1883,  1 14,000  miles. 
In  1861  there  were  25,000  miles  of  telegraph  wires  in  use,  and  in 
1883,  83,500,000  miles.  What  nation  of  the  earth  is  going  to  com- 
pete with  us  when  we  undertake  to  do  or  dare  anything? 

Mr.  F.  F.  Hilder,  editor  of  the  American  Trade  Journal,  was 
itroduced  as  the  essayist  of  the  morning,  by  President  Colman,  and 
read  his  paper  on 

The  South  as  a  Market  for  Dairy  Products. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me,  in  such  an  assemblage,  to  speak 
of  the  importance  of  the  trade  in  dairy  products,  when  one  of  our 
Western  States  alone  produces,  in  more  than  400  creameries  and 
cheese  factories,  articles  valued  at  nearly  $16,000,000.  I  refer  to  Illi- 
nois, when,  in  1882,  it  was  reported  that  716,100  cows  were  ownedT 
worth  over  $26,000,000.  These  great  array  of  figures  would  swell 
to  enormous  proportions,  if  the  statistics  of  all  the  States  in  that  im- 
mense district,  we  include  the  Mississippi  Valley,  were  collected  and 
totalized.  Such  figures  are  surprising,  when  we  consider  how  recent 
are  the  establishment  of  creameries  and  other  arrangements  system- 
atizing the  business.  It  is  only  some  eleven  years  ago  that  the  first 
creamery  was  built  in  Iowa,  at  Manchester.  There  are  now  nearly 
800  in  active  operation  in  that  State. 

An  industry  representing  such  large  investments  of  capital,  and 
such  great  commercial  and  agricultural  interests,  and  exercising  such 
important  influences  on  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  United  States, 
is  well  worthy  of  the  closest  study  on  the  part  of  all  those  directly- 
interested  in  it,  and  should  receive  the  greatest  consideration  from 
legislatures  and  the  press,  in  order  that  it  may  be  protected  from 
wrongs  from  without,  and  be  elevated  by  the  dissemination  of  intel- 
ligence from  within.    Such  conventions  as  these  are  of  the  greatest 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  37 


value,  not  only  to  those  engaged  in  the  business,  but  directly  bene- 
ficial to  the  public  at  large.  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  no  man  ever 
attended  a  convention  bearing  on  the  subject  of  the  business  he  is 
engaged  in  without  adding  some  valuable  ideas  to  his  stock  of  in- 
formation which  enable  him  to  derive  more  profit  from  his  opera- 
dons,  and  to  benefit  the  public  by  putting  better  goods  on  the  mar- 
ket at  more  reasonable  prices. 

I  promised  your  Secretary  that  I  would  say  a  few  words  to  you 
on  the  "  South  as  a  Market  for  Dairy  Products;"  but  before  ad- 
dressing myself  directly  to  the  subject,  I  wish  to  make  a  few  general 
remarks.  There  is  no  doubt  that  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  that 
the  trade  has  to  contend  against  at  present  is  the  adulteration  of 
butter.  When  oleomargarine  was  first  brought  to  public  notice,  it 
was  approved  as  -affording  the  means  of  deceiving  buyers,  and  laws 
were  passed  in  several  States  prohibiting  the  manufacture  and  sale, 
unless  it  was  distinctly  branded  with  the  name  oleomargarine. 
That  was  bad  enough,  but  it  was  pure  as  a  saint  in  comparison  with 
the  villainous  compound  that  has  since  been  introduced,  termed  swine 
or  butterine,  and  manufactured  in  Chicago,  of  lard,  cotton  seed  oil, 
and  grease  of  various  kinds,  with  just  enough  genuine  butter  to  pass 
it  off  on  the  unwary. 

Just  so  long  as  dealers  can  make  an  extra  profit  by  handling 
this  abomination  they  will  do  it,  even  though  it  kills  their  trade  in 
the  genuine  product.  I  looked  over  the  reports  of  the  late  Dairymen's 
Convention,  at  Cincinnati,  expecting  to  find  some  reference  to  this 
question,  and  must  confess  that  I  was  very  much  surprised  that  I 
could  find  nothing  on  the  subject.  If  the  producers  of  good,  legit- 
imate dairy  butter  wish  to  protect  their  interests  and  find  new  mar- 
kets for  their  products,  it  is  time  for  them  to  look  this  subject 
squarely  in  the  face.  It  is  time  for  the  agricultural  press,  agricul- 
tuial  boards,  and  dairy  organizations  of  the  country,  to  set  their  feet 
down  heavily,  and  lend  their  aid  to  crush  frauds  and  counterfeits  of 
all  kinds. 

In  a  recent  tour  through  the  South,  when  I  asked  a  question 
about  extending  the  trade  in  northern  produce,  I  was  frequently  told 
that  they  were  willing  to  pay  a  higher  price  for  home  products,  or 
go  without  butter  altogether,  than  run  the  risk  of  consuming  these 
abominable  products  of  the  Chicago  stock  yards  under  the  disguise 
of  butter. 

With  respect  to  cheese,  there  is  also  a  great  deal  to  be  done 
before  the  trade  will  assume  anything  like  the  importance  that  is  its 
due.  Great  as  is  the  amount  of  cheese  produced  in  this  country, 
it  is  a  mere  trifle  compared  with  the  demand  that  might  be  created 
if  greater  attention  is  paid  to  the  manufacture.  Americans  are  not 
a  cheese-eating  people,  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  obtain  a  cheese  that  they  like  ;  and  yet  cheese  is  one  of  the 
most  nutritious  and  economical  of  foods.  It  contains  as  much  of 
the  flesh  and  muscle-making  elements  as  beef,  and  has  the  advantage 


38 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


that  it  does  not  require  the  expense  of  fuel  and  labor  to  cook  it. 
Greater  variety  in  the  kind  of  cheese  manufactured,  and  greater  at- 
tention to  producing  a  similar  and  regular  flow  in  each  variety,  with 
increased  attention  to  the  curing,  would  do  much  to  increase  the  de- 
mand. Multiply  the  varieties  of  cheese  so  as  to  suit  the  varied 
tastes,  and  you  will  multiply  the  number  of  cheese  eaters  in  much 
larger  proportion. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  any  technical  knowledge  of  dairying  or 
cheese-making ;  but  it  is  my  business  to  watch  the  commercial 
aspects  of  the  various  interests  which  go  to  make  up  the  business  of 
the  nation ;  and  in  so  doing,  I  cannot  help  feeling  the  deepest  in- 
terest in  so  good  a  branch  of  productive  industry. 

That  interest  has  been  largely  increased,  as  I  have  noticed, 
during  the  past  year,  the  steadiness  and  stability  in  the  trade  in  dairy 
products. 

Notwithstanding  the  depression  that  has  prevailed  in  almost  all 
branches  of  trade,  and  the  large  shrinkage  in  values  of  merchandise 
of  every  description  and  of  nearly  all  the  leading  articles  of  food, 
dairy  products,  and  cheese  in  particular,  have  been  remarkably 
steady,  and  in  this  particular  have  found  a  notable  exception  to 
other  products. 

The  New  York  Shipping  List  says  that  the  exports  of  butter 
from  the  United  States,  this  year,  have  been  nearly,  or  quite,  100 
per  cent,  larger  than  last  year,  while  the  average  price  for  the  year 
is  not  more  than  i\  cents  per  lb.  less.  The  exports  of  cheese  have 
not  increased,  but  the  price  has  averaged  a  fraction  of  a  cent  more 
per  lb.  The  amount  manufactured  in  New  York  State  was  much- 
larger  than  in  the  preceding  year,  and  the  decreased  exportation 
from  [the  port  of  New  York,  was  caused  by  the  largely  increased 
shipments  to  Canada  and  the  South  and  West. 

After  the  subject  of  production,  that  of  finding  a  market  is  of 
the  greatest  importance,  and  here,  gentlemen,  I  am  happy  to  say, 
the  prospects  before  the  dairymen  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  are  very 
bright.  The  Southern  States  are  progressing  with  most  wonderful 
rapidity ;  new  manufacturing  enterprises  are  springing  up  in  every 
direction,  and  new  towns  arising  with  vigorous  growth,  that  reminds 
us  more  of  the  newly-opened  regions  of  the  West  than  the  hitherto 
unprogressive  South.  The  demand  for  dairy  products,  of  course,, 
must  keep  pace  with  the  increase  of  our  manufacturing  population. 
It  is  true  that  the  increase  of  dairy  farming  in  the  Southern  States 
is  very  large  ;  in  fact,  surprisingly  so  ;  yet  the  demand  keeps  far 
ahead  of  the  production.  Take  the  State  of  Mississippi  as  an  ex- 
ample:  In  1S70,  the  butter  produced  there  was  2,613,521 
lbs.  In  1880,  that  had  increased  to  7,454,657  lbs.  In  the 
same  time  the  population  had  increased  36  per  cent.,  and 
manufacturing  industries  have  multiplied  in  far  greater  ratio. 
Cotton  mills  are  being  erected ;  woolen  mills  and  oil  mills  estab- 
lished and  enlarged,  and  a  great  movement  is  in  progress  to  utilize 


Mississippi  Vllley  Dairy  and  Ckeamery  Association.  39 


the  magnificent  growth  of  timber,  by  erecting  saw  mills.  In  the 
past  year,  450  miles  of  railroad  have  been  built  in  the  State — all 
these  industries  being  consumers  of  agricultural  and  dairy  pro- 
ducts. Georgia  and  Alabama  are  also  developing  into  great  manu- 
facturing States.  Louisiana,  with  the  great  city  of  New  Orleans 
as  a  port  of  export,  the  great  future  of  which  we  can  hardly  yet 
realize  ;  all  present  growing  markets  for  butter  and  cheese. 

In  the  efforts  that  are  being  made  to  extend  the  export  trade  of 
New  Orleans,  are  centered  the  brightest  prospects  for  the  extension 
of  the  foreign  markets  for  the  products  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Few  persons  are  aware  of  the  amount  of  effort  that  is  being  ex- 
pended in  that  direction,  or  the  progress  that  is  being  made. 

Regular  lines  of  steamers  are  now  running  between  New  Or- 
leans and  the  ports  of  British  'Honduras  and  northern  and  eastern 
Spanish  Honduras.  A  steamer  has  also  lately  been  started  to  run 
to  the  gulf  ports  of  Costa  Rica  and  Nicaragua.  The  Mexican 
Navigation  Company  are  building  a  steamer  in  England,  which  will 
be  finished  in  September  next,  when  she  will  commence  regular 
trips  between  Vera  Cruz,  Galveston  and  New  Orleans.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  facilities,  there  will  soon  be  others.  A  convention  has 
been  called  by  the  Exchange  of  New  Orleans,  to  meet  in  that  city 
on  February  20th,  for  the  purpose  of  extending  commerce  with 
Central  and  South  America,  and  taking  measures  to  put  on  another 
line  of  steamers. 

From  the  rapid  development  of  Mexico  and  Central  America, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  as  soon  as  there  exists  adequate  lines  of  com- 
munication with  New  Orleans,  every  producer  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  will  feel  the  beneficial  results. 

In  looking  through  a  list  of  exports  from  New  York,  for  the 
week  ending  January  8th,  I  noticed  a  shipment  of  18,844  lbs.  butter 
and  6,397  cheese  to  the  United  States  of  Columbia.  This  is, 
doubtless,  supplies  for  the  men  engaged  on  the  works  of  the  Panama 
Canal.  There  are  now  over  10,000  men  employed  on  that  great 
enterprise.  All  their  supplies  of  provisions  should  be  drawn  from  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  through  New  Orleans,  which  is  only  1,300 
miles  distant  from  the  canal  entrance,  instead  of  making  a  voyage 
of  such  great  length  from  New  York.  The  only  reason  why  this 
is  not  done  is,  that  New  York  has  steam  communication  and  New 
Orleans  has  not.  But  in  the  near  future  that  deficiency  will  be  reme- 
died ;  when  it  is,  the  Mississippi  Valley  will  begin  to  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  the  trade  that  is  her  due  by  geographical  situation.  In 
the  week  ending  January  8th,  to  which  I  referred  a  few  minutes 
since,  the  shipments  of  butter  from  New  York  amounted  to  1 75,02:0 
lbs.,  and  of  cheese  to  128,052  lbs.  There  is  no  reason  why  this 
Valley  should  not  export  something  approximating  these  figures 
when  our  direct  export  trade  is  developed  as  it  should  and  will  be. 
In  addition  to  the  Panama  Canal,  there  are  other  great  enterprises 
which  will  be  undertaken  in  the  near  future — Eads'  ship  canal  across 


40        Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


the  isthmus  of  Tehuantapec,  the  Mexican  Tehuantapec  railroad, 
the  railroad  projected  by  the  government  of  Guatemala,  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Pacific.  These  great  works  will  give  em- 
ployment to  thousands  of  laborers.  The  produce  of  this  Valley 
should  feed  them. 

These  are  but  hasty  glimpses  of  the  prospect  which  the  future 
will  unfold  to  us,  of  the  commercial  importance  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley ;  but  I  have  said  enough  to  introduce  the  subject  fairly  to 
you,  to  lead  you  to  turn  your  thoughts  towards  the  direction  in  which 
the  great  streams  of  business  in  your  products  will  flow  in  the  near 
future.  It  is  for  you  to  prepare  yourselves  for  the  demand  that  will 
surely  arise.  The  capacity  of  this  great  region  for  producing  butter 
and  cheese  are  almost  unlimited.  Within  a  few  miles  of  this  city 
there  are  thousands  of  acres  of  cheap  lands,  admirably  adapted  for 
dairy  farming.  Those  who  acquire  them,  and  lay  the  foundation 
for  future  business,  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  securing  a  bounteous 
provision  for  themselves  and  the  children  who  succeed  them.  As 
\  representatives  of  one  of  the  greatest  interests  of  the  country,  I 
most  heartily  wish  you  success,  and  hope  that  we  may  all  live  to  see 
the  day  when  the  conventions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  Asso- 
ciation will  consist  of  ten  times  as  many  delegates,  representing  a 
hundred  fold  increase  in  the  amount  of  business. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Piersol,  of  Monroe  City,  Mo. — I  wish  to  say  a  few 
words  on  a  subject  of  great  interest  that  has  been  passed  over  in 
the  consideration  of  other  matters.  "  It  is  the  practical  working  of 
creameries.  The  Board  of  Directors  of  my  creamery  sent  me  here 
to  learn  what  I  could.  I  would  like  to  get  the  talk  turned  in  that 
direction.  The  creamery  system  seems  to  be  the  plan  and  system 
of  the  future  ;  there  are  some  40  or  50  in  this  State  ;  our  creamery 
was  started  May  1st.  During  the  summer  months  I  was  gone,  but 
came  back  in  September ;  we  found  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in 
getting  some  one  to  take  charge  of  it.  In  establishing  creameries 
the  outfitting  firms  will  furnish  butter  makers  for  $60  and  $70  a 
month  and  a  manager  at  $5  a  day ;  after  a  while  these  men  will 
leave  and  you  get  cheaper  men,  only  to  get  into  difficulties.  Our 
butter  maker  left  after  establishing  a  good  grade  of  butter,  and  men 
employed  subsequently  did  not  do  so  well.  We  find  it  difficult  to 
guage  cream  to  know  what  its  butter  producing  quality  are. 

Mr.  Campbell — It  is  impossible  to  learn  the  creamery  trade 
here.  If  the  gentleman  has  no  one  about  him  able  to  run  his  estab- 
lishment he  should  send  some  one  to  a  successful  creamery  to  learn. 
These  men  must  go  to  a  school  of  creameries  and  learn,  then  they 
will  be  able  to  teach. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Wanzer,  of  Chicago,  111.,  was  then  introduced  by 
President  Colman,  and  he  read  the  following  essay : 

Collecting  Cream  vs.  Whole  Milk. 

The  system  of  cream  gathering,  or  what  is  termed  the  Fair- 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  41 


lamb  system,  is  comparatively  new,  and  all  of  its  benefits  have  not 
yet  been  brought  out,  and  we  feel  at  a  disadvantage  when  comparing 
it  with  other  forms  of  association  dairying  better  established.  As 
yet,  this  form  of  dairying  has  shown  to  better  advantage  in  the 
newer  and  more  sparsely  settled  portions  of  the  West,  where  stock- 
raising  has  been  one  of  the  points  considered  by  the  farmer.  So  well 
has  it  worked  in  the  new  dairy  districts  that  the  older  ones  are  look- 
ing it  up,  inasmuch  as  it  offers  better  opportunities  for  diversified 
farming.  This  plan  is  showing  us  how  to  get  more  good  butter 
with  less  skimmed  cheese. 

There  has  been  enough  already  developed  in  this  new  departure 
to  convince  the  most  skeptical  that  better  and  more  butter  can  be 
made  than  in  the  old  way.  When  compared  with  the  old  system 
the  ressults  are  simply  grand ;  taking,  as  it  does,  the  cream  from  the 
farmer's  door,  releasing  him  from  the  labor  of  making  the  butter, 
as  well  as  the  expense  of  bringing  about  him  those  expensive  con- 
veniences requisite  for  the  manufacture  of  even  a  fair  quality  of 
butter,  always  pa}ing  him  as  much  for  the  cream  that  it  takes  to 
make  a  pound  of  butter  as  his  butter  would  fetch  after  he  had  made 
it  at  home,  and  paying  cash  instead  of  store  pay.  The  manufac- 
turer, with  his  improved  appliances  for  gathering,  churning  and 
working,  converts  the  cream  into  an  article  demanded  by  the  best 
home,  as  well  as  foreign  trade,  virtually  bringing  the  most  obscure 
farmer  of  the  distant  west,  with  his  two  or  three  cows,  right  into 
competition  with  his  more  favored  neighbors  that  may  chance  to 
live  near  the  great  dairy  centres  of  Elgin,  or  Herkimer,  and  instead 
of  having  to  rely  upon  a  home  trade  on  account  of  the  low  grade  of 
his  butter,  can  have  the  whole  world  for  his  customers.  Now  at 
this  age  of  dairying  it  would  be  folly  to  institute  a  comparison 
between  the  new  and  the  old  way,  unless  we  can  show  money  and 
advantages  upon  one  side  or  the  other,  for  there  is  no  argument 
among  men  so  good  as  the  almighty  dollar,  and  our  25  years'  ex- 
perience in  dealing  with  dairymen  leads  us  to  believe  that  they  are 
no  exceptions  to  the  rule.  In  my  comparison  of  the  two  systems 
will  try  and  show  where  the  dollar  comes  in.  First,  we  say  to  the 
farmer  that  has  no  taste  for  diversified  farming  and  wants  an  excuse 
to  go  to  town  or  factory  every  morning,  that  some  of  the  items 
entering  into  our  calculations  will  count  for  naught,  but  to  the  man 
who  would  make  the  most  of  his  time  and  milk  there  are  advantages 
in  the  Fairlamb  system  that  are  worthy  your  consideration.  The 
creamery  sends  its  wagon  to  your  door  after  your  cream,  paying  at 
least  as  much  for  it  as  you  could  get  for  the  butter,  were  you  to 
make  and  market  it  yourself,  and  with  the  new  appliances  for 
gathering  cream,  enable  you  to  get  one-eighth  more  cream  than  in 
the  old  and  ordinary  way  of  setting  your  milk.  For  instance,  the 
dairyman  that  is  making  eight  pounds  of  butter  per  day  would  have 
an  increase  of  365  pounds  in  the  year,  at  20  cents  per  pound  would 
amount  to  $75,  besides  being  relieved  of  the  labor  of  making  the 


42 


Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


butter  or  even  skimming  the  milk.  Now  in  comparing  this  with 
the  old  and  better  established  method  of  association  dairying,  we 
may  have  a  more  difficult  task  to  show  the  dollar  upon  the  side  of 
the  Fairlamb  system,  and  as  this  convention  wants  facts  and  nothing 
else,  we  will  make  the  comparison,  drawing  from  our  own  experi- 
ence in  both  branches  of  co-operative  dairying,  and  from  the 
experience  of  others.  Now,  the  milk  producer  that  is  selling  his 
milk  or  sending  it  to  a  factory  for  the  six  winter  months,  has  sold 
it  for,  or  expects  about  $1.30  per  hundred  pounds;  this  is  about 
what  he  will  get  if  we  base  the  price  upon  the  values  that  have  ruled 
for  creamery  butter  and  skimmed  milk  cheese  after  deducting 
manufacturing  and  marketing  expenses. 

Now  let  us  see  what  this  farmer  would  have  done  had  he  sold 
cream  instead  of  the  milk.  First,  he  would  have  gotten  four  and 
one-half  gauges  of  cream,  equal  to  4  1-2  pounds  of  butter  per  100 
pounds  of  milk,  which  would  have  brought  him  25  cents  per  gauge, 
$1.12  1-2,  add  to  this  the  value  of  the  skimmed  milk,  25  cents,  and 
we  have  $1,37  1-2,  now  add  the  saving  of  10c.  per  100  pounds  for 
carrying  to  the  creamery,  and  we  have  $1.47  1-2  against  $1.30,  a 
difference  of  17  1-2  cents  per  hundred  pounds  in  favor  of  the  Fair- 
lamb  plan.  Now  I  think  there  will  be  no  difference  of  opinion  in 
the  items  above,  except  it  may  be  in  the  matters  of  carrying  milk  to 
a  creamery  and  the  value  of  the  skimmed  milk.  In  the  item  of 
transporting  milk  to  a  creamery  the  average  distance,  the  farmers  of 
Kane  and  McHenry  counties,  Ills. ,  think  it  can't  be  done  for  less  than 
10  cents  per  ioopounds.  In  the  matter  of  placing  the  value  of  skim 
milk,  I  draw  my  conclusions  from  my  own  experience  as  well  as- 
that  of  others.  Many  dairymen  of  Central  and  Northern  Illinois, 
Southern  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  place  the  value  of  100  pounds  of 
skimmed  milk  at  25  cents ;  more  will  tell  you  that  they  had  as  leave 
have  100  lbs.  of  skimmed  milk  as  a  bushel  of  corn  to  feed  ;  not  to 
feed  alone,  but,  as  one  of  the  Illinois  farmers  put  it,  he  said:  "If  I 
had  20  hogs  to  fatten  and  100  bushels  of  corn  to  feed  them,  I  should 
make  money  by  exchanging  20  bushels  of  the  corn  for  2,000  lbs.  of 
skimmed  milk,  and  feed  them  the  80  bushels  of  corn  with  the  2,000 
lbs.  of  skimmed  milk.  I  am  sure  I  would  make  more  pork  and  in 
less  time  than  I  could  to  have  fed  the  100  bushels  of  corn  alone." 
Another  said,  '.'I  am  milking  15  cows  and  raising  12  of  my  best 
calves.  I  take  about  two-thirds  of  my  skimmed  milk  and  add  a 
little  oatmeal  and  grain,  and  raise  calves  that  make  as  good  yearl- 
ings as  my  neighbors,  who  let  their  calves  suck  the  cow,  the  other 
one-third  of  my  milk  I  feed  to  six  brood  sows,  with  an  average  of 
six  pigs  each,  and  by  thus  using  my  skimmed  milk,  I  think  it  worth 
30c.  per  100  lbs." 

My  own  experience  leads  me  to  place  the  value  of  25c.  per  100 
pounds  upon  skimmed  milk. 

It  will  be  conceded  by  all  that  in  order  to  give  calves  and  pigs 
a  fair  start  in  life  they  must  have  milk.  These  calculations  would 
place  the  dollar  upon  the  Fairlamb  side. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


43 


These  conclusions  anticipate  good  management  in  all  of  the 
gathered  cream  plan,  and  so  does  it  need  careful  management  in  the 
butter  and  cheese  factory  to  bring  $1.30  per  100  lbs.  for  milk  in  the 
six  winter  months.  Notwithstanding,  the  fact  that  the  Fairlamb 
system  is  new,  there  are  already  1,300  in  operation  in  the  west  alone, 
and  if  the  commercial  reports  are  consulted,  it  will  be  found  that  no 
other  business  in  our  country  has  made  so  wonderful  a  development 
with  so  few  failures.  Some  of  us  can  go  back  to  the  early  success 
and  failures  in  inaugerating  and  perfecting  the  systems  whereby  an 
article  of  butter  and  cheese  could  be  made  in  the  west  that  might  be 
accepted  in  the  markets  of  the  world ;  and  thank  God,  some  of  us 
have  lived  to  see  the  blush  mount  the  cheek  of  those  that  so  con- 
fidently predicted  our  failure.  Then  we  looked  to  the  east  for 
guidance.  Now  they  come  to  us  for  advice.  So  we  would  say  to 
those  that  look  with  distrust  upon  this  new  departure,  hold,  before 
you  pass  judgment,  for  before  you  are  aware  of  it,  your  neighbor 
will  have  passed  you  on  the  road  to  success,  as  many  of  us  who 
helped  to  bear  the  burden  of  opening  up  the  west  to  successful 
dairying,  have  seen  others  left  far  in  the  background,  because  to 
lend  encouragement  to  us  in  that  early  day  was  in  some  way  to 
conflict  with  the  prejudices  brought  from  the  east.  It  is  a  matter 
of  fact  that  wherever  the  Fairlamb  system  has  come  in  competition 
with  other  forms  of  dairying  and  has  failed,  the  causes  have  been 
traced  directly  to  mismanagement.  Of  the  1,300  creameries  in  the 
west,  90  per  cent,  of  them  are  pronounced  successes.  Good  butter 
can  and  must  be  made  upon*the  gathered  cream  plan. 

We  need  a  greater  diversity  in  farming.  The  milking  alone  as 
practiced  in  our  large  dairy  districts  seems  to  narrow  down  the  chances 
of  profits.  Whilst  the  raising  of  stock  and  other  farming  pursuits 
that  can  be  practiced  with  cream  gathering  would  not  only  increase 
the  chances  of  gain,  but  put  the  farmers'  boys  in  a  way  to  become 
acquainted  with  more  than  agricultural  pursuit,  with  a  tendency  to 
enlarge  instead  of  narrowing  down  the  mind. 

Besides  the  Fairlamb  system  would  give  each  dairyman  the 
opportunity  of  raising  their  own  cows,  instead  of  filling  up  the  waste 
by  going  out  among  those  that  follow  this  form  of  dairying  and 
taking  up  with  the  culls  of  the  herds  ;  the  tendency  of  other  forms  of 
associated  dairying  being  to  lower  instead  of  elevating  the  standard 
of  milking  herds.  There  is  no  longer  a  shadow  of  doubt  but  that 
the  finest  goods  are  bemg  turned  out  of  gathered  cream  creameries. 

To  be  sure  the  rapid  development  of  this  form  of  butter-making 
has  necessitated  the  employment  in  many  cases  of  unskilled  opera- 
tors, caused  by  the  fact  that  creameries  have  been  built  faster  than 
we  could  educate  men  to  work  them,  and  which  should  not  be 
charged  up  to  the  system.  We  honestly  believe  that  the  gathered 
cream  plan  is  yet  to  revolutionize  the  manufacture  of  butter  in  the 
United  States,  if  not  the  whole  world.  Joseph  Sampson  says  that 
the  gathered  cream  plan  is  to  the  west  what  Robert  Fulton's  in- 


44       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


vention  was  to  navigation  in  the  east.  We  predict  that  within  ten 
years,  four  pounds  out  of  every  five  of  butter  made,  will  be  manu- 
factured upon  this  plan.  We  confidently  expect  this  system  to  go 
on  in  its  triumphant  march,  and  some  of  us,  now  advanced  in  life, 
will  live  to  find  it  as  strange  to  find  a  milk  pan  or  churn  in  the 
farmer's  home  as  it  is  now  a  spinning  wheel  or  loom. 

Mr.  Hiram  Smith,  of  Sheboygan,  Wisconsin — I  wish  to  ask  a 
question  regarding  the  different  manners  of  gathering  cream.  Mr. 
Curtis  stated  that  the  difference  was  from  8  to  24  ounces.  If  the 
milk  is  kept  at  the  same  temperature  and  under  the  same  conditions, 
the  gauge  will  be  the  same.  Breed  is  nothing — the  difference  is  in 
handling  the  cream.  We  must  let  the  cream  stand  24  hours  in  the 
Darlington  creamery ;  but  where  they  have  wells,  it  takes  longer. 
We  have  introduced  the  test  system  for  cream.  Before  I  went 
there,  there  was  much  mismanagement  on  the  route  ;  the  milk  sup- 
plied was  in  some  cases  condensed,  and  in  others  was  too  thin.  Set 
the  milk  under  the  same  conditions,  and  handle  it  in  the  same  man- 
ner, and  the  product  will  be  the  same.  If  milk  is  cooled  to  60  de- 
grees you  will  have  the  maximum  of  cream  ;  but  if  the  milk  gets 
warmer  the  cream  will  decrease. 

Query  (of  the  essayist) — What  are  some  of  the  troubles  in  the 
way  of  the  new  creameries  ?  Where  are  they  going  to  make  mis- 
takes?   Is  it  better  for  the  route  man  to  do  the  skimming? 

Ans. — Yes,  except  under  this  test  plan,  when  we  judge  the 
value  of  the  cream,  and  cover  the  route  every  other  way.  If  a 
farmer  knows  that  he  has  to  have  a  better  quality  of  cream,  he 
would  be  more  careful  of  it ;  but  it  is  better  to  have  the  route  men 
do  the  skimming? 

Query — Do  you  have  any  trouble  with  shortages? 

Ans. — Yes,  but  it  is  possible  to  make  a  farmer  honest  with  you. 

Query — Have  you  much  trouble  in  getting  the  full  quantity  of 
butter  from  the  cream,  in  accordance  with  the  gauge? 

Ans. — Yes,  from  the  schoolmasters  of  the  business. 

A  discussion  here  ensued  between  Mr.  Addy  and  Mr.  Wanzer, 
as  to  the  value  of  the  test  system.  Mr.  Addy  defended  the  Schock 
and  Bolander  test,  while  Mr.  Wanzer  maintained  that  the  test  sys- 
tem is  often  a  detriment. 

Mr.  Drury — I  have  endeavored  to  improve  my  method  of 
making  butter,  and  have  tried  to  ascertain  what  manners  were  in 
vogue  elsewhere.  I  sent  a  bright  young  man  I  had  raised  to  Iowa, 
that  he  might  learn  there  what  they  were  doing  ;  since  his  return  we 
have  been  experimenting  a  good  deal,  and  I  have  found  it  pays  to 
have  some  one  who  has  a  knowledge  of  the  subject.  I  think  there 
is  a  great  deal  in  feeding,  and  in  the  handling  of  the  milk,  that  pro- 
duces the  butter.  Out  of  3  lbs.  of  cream,  at  one  time,  I  made  1  lb. 
of  butter;  at  another,  I  found  it  took  4  lbs.  of  cream  to  1  lb.  of 
butter. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  45 


Mr.  Curtis — I  have  talked  much  to  you  during  this  session,  but 
I  want  to  say  this :  cream  gathering  is  a  pioneer  system,  and  does 
not  equal  gathering  the  milk.  I  think  it  pays  better  to  gather  the 
milk,  and  make  skim-milk  cheese  in  addition  to  making  butter — 
there  is  more  money  in  this  system. 

Mr.  Addy — We  must  deal  with  things  as  we  find  them.  It  is 
well  enough  to  have  theories ;  but  the  milk-gathering  system  is  not 
the  one  for  the  West.  It  will  do  for  the  older  parts  of  the  country. 
Farmers  will  manipulate  the  cream,  and  the  dairymen,  who  make 
butter  from  their  cream,  find  it  is  short.  I  would  say  to  those  who 
intend  to  go  into  the  creamery  business :  you  had  better  start  right, 
and  after  a  while  you  will  be  O.  K.  The  test  system  is  the  best; 
if  it  takes  time  and  trouble,  take  that  time  and  trouble.  A  creamery 
is  not  a  national  bank.  When  every  one  of  your  farmers  knows 
that  you  will  be  able  to  find  out  his  thefts,  then  he  will  be  honest 
with  you.  I  would  not  start  a  creamery  without  using  the  test 
system. 

When  asked  to  explain,  he  said  : 

Every  farmer  is  allowed  to  skim  his  own  milk,  and  every  cream 
gatherer  takes  in  his  wagon  2-quart  jars,  and  whenever  he  purchases 
cream,  he  takes  a  jar  full  of  that  cream  and  seals  it,  attaching 
thereto  the  name  of  the  person  from  whom  he  buys.  This  jar,  so 
marked,  is  set  in  a  box  in  the  wagon,  and  when  the  cream  gatherer 
returns  to  the  factory  these  tests  are  cured  just  as  the  cream  is  cured, 
and  are  put  into  receptacles  large  enough  to  contain  them.  These 
receptacles  are  placed  in  a  churning  rack,  and  the  cream  is  churned ; 
the  butter  is  then  removed  and  weighed.  I  have  found,  where  it 
should  have  been  8  ounces,  the  variations  have  been  4^  6,  10  and  12, 
in  tests  placed  in  the  same  rack.  These  differences  are  caused  by 
the  different  conditions  surrounding,  the  keeping  of  the  cream  and 
skimming.  Is  it  right  that  a  man  pay  $1  for  50c  worth  of  cream? 
And  is  it  not  right  to  adopt  a  system  that  detects  such  fraud  ?  When 
the  cream  is  brought  to  the  creamery,  and  tested,  we  charge  any  loss 
to  the  farmer  from  whom  it  was  purchased  ;  he  comes  and  kicks ;  is 
advised  to  take  better  care  of  his  cream — does  so,  and  finds  that  it 
pays. 

Mr.  Wanzer — There  is  no  justice  in  the  system,  unless  we  test 
every  day.  The  cream,  to-day,  maybe  good,  and,  to-morrow,  bad  ; 
and  it  is  often  true,  that  where  we  mix  cream  from  one  dairy  with 
another,  it  becomes  so  acid  in  the  mixture  that  it  will  deteriorate. 

The  mid-day  hour  having  arrived,  the  meeting  adjourned  to 
meet  again  at  two  o'clock. 


46        Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


AFTERNOON  SESSION,  JANUARY  31- 


President  Colman  announced  that  Dr.  Louis  Bauer,  Dean  of 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  St.  Louis,  who  was  to 
deliver  an  address  on  "  Milk  as  a  Diet,"  was  unable  to  appear. 

[But  since  the  meeting,  the  Doctor  has  contributed  the  essay, 
which  is  here  presented:] 

Address  by  Louis  Bauer,  M.  D.,  M.  R.  C.  S.  Engl. 
Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen: 

At  the  earnest  request  of  your  Secretary,  I  am  here  to  speak 
before  you  on  the  subject  of  "  Milk  as  an  Article  of  Diet;"  and  as 
I  have,  for  years,  taken  a  very  lively  interest  in  the  subject,  I  enter 
upon  the  theme  with  pleasure. 

I  am  partial  towards  milk.  I  like  it  as  a  beverage  and  as  a 
food ;  I  have  freely  partaken  of  it  all  my  life,  and  have  commended 
it  to  my  patients  in  suitable  conditions.  Therefore,  I  am  full  of 
the  subject,  and  feel  strongly  inclined  to  offer  a  few  modest  opin- 
ions upon  it.  Before,  however,  I  plunge  into  rem,  I  beg  to  state 
that  I  have  never  experienced  any  biliousness  from  the  free  imbiba- 
tion  of  milk,  nor  has  my  shadow  grown  less  under  its  use.  If  it  has 
acted  as  a  poison  upon  my  constitution,  it  has  done  so  in  a  most  in- 
sidious manner,  for  I  have  never  been  able  to  realize  the  fact. 
Intemperance  in  milk  has,  in  my  case,  proved  very  harmless. 

To  speak  seriously,  I  truly  believe  that  there  is  no  nutriment 
equal  to  milk.  It  is  not  only  most  palatable  and  refreshing,  but  it 
is  readily  digested,  quickly  assimilated,  and  rapidly  converted  into 
all  the  living  tissues  of  which  the  human  body  is  composed.  At  the 
same  time,  it  agrees  with  both  sexes  and  every  age.  During  in- 
fancy, it  is  indispensable  as  an  article  of  food,  and  admits  of  no 
substitute.  It  doubles  the  weight  of  the  infant  during  the  first 
months  of  life,  and  endows  the  same  with  a  rotund,  fresh,  rosy  and 
healthy  appearance,  for  which  there  is  no  parallel  example  in  favor 
of  any  other  article  of  nutriment. 

An  average  good  milk  should  possess  a  specific  gravity  of  1030, 
and  contain,  in  about  20  ounces,  350  grains  of  casein,  324  grains  of 
fat,  421  grains  of  lactine  or  milk  sugar,  and  66  grains  of  milk  salts. 

The  specific  gravity  will,  however,  lessen  with  the  temperature 
of  the  milk,  so  that  at  about  100  degrees  F.,  it  will  exhibit  but  1024. 
When  exposed  to  air,  the  milk  at  all  times  absorbs  oxygen  and  ex- 
pels carbonic  acid.  The  latter  is  formed  at  the  expense  of  its  organic 
constituents,  probably  of  casein,  and  new  elements,  richer  in  carbon 
and  hydrogen,  result.  The  changes  thus  effected  in  the  compostionof 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  47 


milk  are  rather  slow  and  insignificant  in  low  temperature  ;  but  rapid 
and  destructive  when  the  thermometer  is  high.  Then  lactic  acid  is 
formed,  and  the  milk  congeals.  The  chemical  reaction  of  milk 
should  be  neutral  or  feebly  acid  or  alkaline.  A  marked  acid  reac- 
tion indicates  its  decomposition.  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  com- 
position of  cows'  milk  varies  with  food ;  with  the  number  of  her 
pregnancies,  with  the  age  of  the  calf,  and  the  race. 

Thus,  for  instance,  beet  and  carrot  augments  the  sugar ;  in  the 
first  pregnancy  the  qnantity  of  milk  is  less  than  in  the  following 
ones,  and,  therefore,  more  concentrated.  Soon  after  the  calving 
the  milk  exhibits  a  quantity  of  colostrum,  which  gradually  disap- 
pears from  the  milk  with  time.  Some  races,  as  for  instance,  the 
Aldernays,  return  more  butter,  and  the  long  horns  more  casein. 
The  last  portion  of  the  milk  given  in  milking  is,  according  to  Has- 
kell, richer  in  cream. 

This  emphatic  estimate  applies  exclusively  to  fresh,  good  and 
pure  milk — milk  derived  from  healthy  cows,  preserved  in  clean  ves- 
sels, in  dry  and  well-aired  rooms,  and  speedily  distributed  to  the 
consumer.  There  is  no  organic  liquid  in  existence  which  is  so 
readily  depreciated,  decomposed,  or  rendered  more  obnoxious  to 
health. 

Although  we  have  the  assurance  that  temporary  ailment  of  cows 
does  not  materially  alter  the  normal  composition  of  milk,  and  that 
the  seed  of  disease  is  not  readily  communicated  to  the  consumers, 
there  are  sufficient  facts  of  doubt  on  record  to  invalidate  such  state- 
ments. 

That  cholera-like  attacks,  varied  affections  of  the  mouth  of 
children,  and  even  fevers,  have  been  traced  to  the  consume  of  a  cer- 
tain milk,  cannot  be  any  longer  denied.  But,  thus  far,  no  absolute 
proofs  have  been  furnished  by  reliable  methods  of  investigation. 
The  intermixture  of  milk,  with  purulent  material  from  the  udder  of 
cows',  favors  an  early  decomposition,  and  the  peculiar  forms  of 
mouth  disease,  particularly  in  children,  known  by  the  popular  name 
of  "  soors."  Changes  of  milk  are  likewise  noted  from  the  differ- 
ences of  food,  and  the  so-called  "  troubles"  have  been  ascribed  to 
Rhus  toxicodendron,  upon  which  cows  have  fed.  That  the  milk 
may  convey  the  poisons  of  typhoid  and  scarlet  fever,  when  the  cows, 
or  the  milk,  have  been  watered  with  foul  creek  water,  is  at  least 
probable. 

The  milk  from  pregnant  cows  has  proven  obi'ectionable  for 
dietetic  purposes,  notwithstanding  that  microscope  and  chemical 
analysis  had  failed  to  reveal  any  morbid  admixture. 

Stable  feeding  is  certainly  objectionable,  in  reference  to  milk, 
even  if  the  stables  are  well  aerated  and  kept  moderately  clean.  The 
best  milk  is  always  derived  from  roaming  cows,  both  in  reference 
to  the  benefit  of  better  air  and  food. 

As  there  are  women  whose  milk  does  not  agree  with  their 
suckling  offspring,  so  are  cows  whose  milk  is  rejected  by  infants. 


48 


Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


In  such  case,  there  is  no  other  remedy  than  to  change  the  mother's 
breast  to  that  of  a  wet  nurse. 

For  adults,  an  exclusively  milk  diet  is  not  unfrequently  pre- 
scribed. For  a  man  who  has  to  perform  a  large  amount  of  manual 
labor,  milk,  alone,  may  furnish  all  the  nutriment  required  by  the 
system ;  but  in  order  to  do  so  a  very  large  amount  of  the  liquid  is 
necessary.  At  least  nine  pints  must  be  imbibed  during  the  twenty- 
four  hours — an  inordinate  amount,  as  you  may  suppose,  for  the  re- 
quirements of  man.  A  partial  condensation  of  milk,  in  order  to 
rid  it  of  the  unnecessary  fluid,  would  seem  the  rational  method  of 
making  a  diet  exclusively  composed  of  this  material  all  that  could 
be  desired. 

The  ordinary  forms  of  condensed  milk  are  objectionable,  be- 
cause of  the  invariable  admixture  of  sugar  to  increase  its  keeping 
qualities.  This  addition  is  objectionable  for  many  reasons.  The 
addition  of  sugar  lessens  its  capacity  for  rapid  digestion,  and  does 
not  add  to  its  keeping  qualities.  The  simple  exclusion  of  air,  after 
it  has  been  subjected  to  a  high  temperature  for  a  sufficient  length  of 
time,  insures  its  remaining  unchanged  for  an  indefinite  period. 
Here  is  a  field,  in  my  estimation,  which,  when  cultivated  properly, 
will  yield  large  returns. 

To  practical  dairymen,  I  need  hardly  say  anything  on  the  im- 
portance of  cleanliness  in  the  handling  of  milk.  But  there  are  sources 
of  uncleanliness,  which  are  visible  to  the  physician,  but  which 
would  be  overlooked  by  non-professional  men  until  their  attention 
is  properly  directed.  I  refer  to  the  contamination  of  the  water-sup- 
ply furnished  stock,  and  that  used  in  the  cleansing  of  utensils,  by 
the  seepage  from  privy-vaults.  If  the  cows  are  permitted  to  drink 
water  that  has  thus  been  contaminated,  the  milk  becomes  a  source 
of  danger  to  whoever  consumes  it.  This  is  especially  true,  if  the 
excrete  of  persons  sick  with  typhoid  fever  are  contained  in  the  con- 
taminating liquids.  But  if  it  is  of  great  importance  that  cows 
should  have  pure  water  to  drink,  it  is  of  still  greater  moment  that 
no  suspicion  should  attach  to  that  used  for  washing  the  utensils  em- 
ployed about  the  dairy.  Over  fifty  epidemics  of  typhoid  fever 
have  already  been  traced  to  this  source. 

The  poison  of  scarlatina  has  been  spread  through  the  medium 
of  milk,  in  a  large  number  of  instances.  About  twenty  such  epi- 
demics have  been  already  proven  to  have  thus  arisen.  The  poison 
of  this  disease  is  volatile,  and  readily  absorbed  by  milk,  when  it  re- 
mains in  the  presence  of  a  person  sick  with  it ;  besides,  it  is  present 
in  the  scales  of  skin,  which  is  always  shed  from  the  whole  surface 
of  the  body  during  recovery  from  an  attack.  Persons  recently  ill 
with  scarlet  fever  should  have  nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with  milk- 
ing cows,  or  the  handling  of  any  of  the  products  of  the  dairy. 

A  number  of  epidemics  of  diphtheria  have  already  been  traced 
to  the  milk  supply  of  the  families  in  which  the  affection  has  ap- 
peared.   Many  more,  undoubtedly,  have  had  the  same  origin. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


49 


You  see,  gentlemen,  to  how  great  an  extent  you  hold  the  health 
and  the  lives  of  the  people  in  your  hands.  Without  your  aid  the 
physician  would  often  find  himself  shorn  of  his  strength  to  battle 
with  disease.  Yours  is  a  high  and  precious  trust,  and  I  am  glad  to 
find  you  organizing  for  the  more  perfect  discharge  of  the  duties  you 
have  undertaken.  Scientific  investigation  cannot  fail  to  enlarge  the 
area  of  your  usefulness,  and,  at  the  same  time,  add  to  the  legiti- 
mate profits  of  your  chosen  field  of  industry. 

I  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  success  of  your  enterprise.  To-day 
marks  an  era  in  the  development  of  one  of  the  commanding  interests 
of  this  great  Valley,  an  interest  which  has  been  too  long  neglected. 
I  compliment  you  for  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  which  has  been 
evidenced  by  this  large  and  intelligent  gathering,  at  the  initial 
meeting  of  your  Association,  and  cannot  help  predicting  for  it  a 
very  brilliant  future. 

Mr.  Charles  Cabanne  was  then  introduced,  and  read  an  essay  on 

What  is  the  Best  Method  of  Supplying  Large  Cities 
with  Milk  ? 

I  was  requested,  late  yesterday  afternoon,  to  write  an  article  on 
this  subject,  and  as  this  is  the  first  address  I  have  ever  written,  and 
the  first  address  that  I  have  ever  delivered  to  an  assembly,  I  hope 
you  will  make  allowances. 

I  will  confine  my  remarks  more  particularly  to  the  supply  of  St. 
Louis,  as  I  am  more  acquainted  with  the  conditions  here.  Nearly 
all  of  the  milk  sold  in  St.  Louis  is  produced  from  cows  in  this  city, 
or  within  a  mile  of  its  limits.  The  milk  from  these  cows  can  be  sold 
cheaper  in  this  city  than  the  milk  produced  upon  farms  so  far  from 
the  city  that  the  milk  has  to  be  shipped  in  by  rail.  To  give  you 
some  idea  of  how  small  a  quantity  of  milk  is  'shipped  into  St.  Louis 
every  day,  as  compared  with  Chicago  and  New  York  City,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  say  that  about  2,500  gallons  comes  into  St.  Louis,  while 
Chicago  receives  about  40,000,  and  New  York  1 10,000  gallons. 

A  large  quantity  of  the  milk  produced  in  the  districts  from 
which  Chicago  and  New  York  draw  their  supplies,  is  manufactured 
into  cheese  and  butter,  besides  what  is  shipped  into  those 
•cities  every  day ;  so  that  the  supply  is  always  in  excess  of  the  de- 
mand, so  that  it  is  only  necessary  for  the  deliverer  of  milk,  in  those 
•cities,  to  adopt  such  methods  as  will  enable  them  to  force  parties 
from  whom  he  buys,  to  ship  milk  and  cream  of  a  certain  standard. 
But  here  in  St.  Louis,  the  conditions  are  entirely  changed,  and  the 
question  of  delivering  pure  milk  becomes  more  complex.  There  is 
no  continued  surplus  in  the  districts  from  which  St.  Louis  draws  her 
supply  of  country  milk  worked  into  cheese  and  butter ;  and  to  give 
the  consumer  what  he  wants  when  the  supply  is  short,  to  simplify 
matters,  the  hydrant  is  called  into  use. 


50 


Keport.  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


It  frequently  happens  that  there  is  an  increased  demand  from 
the  same  number  of  customers,  just  at  a  time  when  any  given  num- 
ber of  cows,  from  a  change  in  temperature,  or  feed,  fall  off  in  their 
milk.  In  order  to  meet  this  condition,  it  is  necessary  to  carry  a  re- 
serve at  some  point,  where  the  deliverer  should  have  a  creamery, 
where  the  surplus,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  manufactured  into  cheese 
and  butter.  The  reserve  must  always  be  kept  in  proportion  to  the 
volume  of  milk  sold.  So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  depending  upon 
shippers,  where  they  are  required  to  regulate  the  supply,  has  been 
a  lamentable  failure. 

The  first  thing  for  a  company,  wishing  to  supply  a  large  city 
with  wholesome  as  well  as  pure  milk,  is,  to  buy  milk  from  farmers 
who  live  at  such  a  distance  from  the  city  that  it  will  not  pay  them 
to  feed  their  cows  with  the  refuse  from  distilleries ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, where  hay,  corn,  oats,  bran  and  pasture,  are  the  cheapest 
food.  This  is  the  opinion  of  many,  notwithstanding  that  our  Board 
of  Health  here  decided  that  swill  was  a  proper  food  for  milk  cows. 

The  best  way  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  farming  community,  from 
which  such  a  company  propose  to  draw  their  supply,  is  to  build  a 
creamery  on  the  railroad,  where  they  must  deliver  their  milk  twice 
ja.  day,  when  required,  where  it  should  be  prepared  for  the  market. 
The  next  thing,  which  is  very  difficult  for  the  deliverer  of  milk  to 
do,  is  to  prevent  the  adulteration  of  milk  by  those  from  whom  it  is 
bought,  or  by  employes  of  the  company,  after  the  milk  is  received 
from  the  farmers ;  and  if  the  milk  or  cream  is  adulterated,  to  locate 
the  point  at  which  the  adulteration  takes  place,  whether  it  is  on  the 
farm,  in  the  milk  depot,  on  the  delivery  wagons,  or  in  the  house  of 
the  consumer.  To  do  this,  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  perfectly  equip- 
ped laboratory,  controlled  by  competent  chemists. 

Parties  unfamiliar  with  the  details  of  a  city  milk  business,  can 
form  no  idea  of  the  constant  increasing  and  skillful  work  required 
by  this  department  of  a  milk  business.  Samples  of  milk  must  be 
taken  when  the  milk  arrives,  samples  must  be  taken  from  the  de- 
livery wagon,  and  samples  must  be  taken  from  the  houses  of  cus^ 
tomers,  by  reliable  assistants,  and  brought  to  the  laboratory  for  ex- 
amination and  analysis.  I  am  familiar  with  the  ordinary  methods 
of  detecting  adulteration,  and  I  know  that  they  are  almost  use- 
less, and  frequently  lead  to  unjust  treatment  of  the  deliverer  of  milk  ; 
but  a  control,  based  upon  such  a  foundation  as  I  have  above  stated, 
is  scientific,  and  an  analysis  of  milk,  which  is  to  be  distributed  in  its 
natural  state,  is  the  only  true  method  of  ascertaining  its  food  value. 

The  St.  Louis  Dairy  Company  of  this  city  was  organized  toper- 
feet  the  above  scheme,  and  if  they  do  not  succeed  in  obtaining  the 
patronage  of  its  citizens  it  will  not  be  from  any  fault  of  the  schemeT 
but  it  will  simply  be  because  I  am  not  the  right  man  to  show  them 
the  merits  of  the  undertaking. 

I  am  perfectly  well  aware  that  this  is  an  exceedingly  elaborate, 
and  at  the  same  time,  necessarily,  costly  system  ;  but  it  is  absolutely 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


51 


indispensable  for  insuring  the  supply  of  rhilk,  that  can  be  implicitly 
trusted.  Many  people  ridicule,  as  absurd,  the  notion  of  a  chemical 
laboratory  as  a  necessary  adjunct  to  a  milk  business ;  but,  I  assure 
you,  I  would  as  quickly,  now,  dispense  with  the  services  of  our 
book-keeper  as  with  our  laboratory,  and  it  has  been  but  eight 
months  in  operation.  I  now  know  how  badly  I  was  imposed  upon 
before  our  laboratory  was  equipped. 

I  wish  what  I  am  now  about  to  say  could  be  heard  by  every 
consumer  of  milk  in  this  city.  We  have  analyzed  samples  of  milk, 
sold  by  deliverers  of  milk  here  as  pure  unskimmed  milk,  that  con- 
tained but  10  per  cent,  of  solids,  while  it  should  have  contained  not 
less  than  12  J,  and  might  have  contained  14}  per  cent,  of  solids.  An 
average  of  13 J  per  cent,  of  solids  can  reasonably  be  demanded  by 
the  buyer  in  this  market,  during  this  winter.  Now,  the  moneyed 
•<  difference  between  milk  containing  10  per  cent,  and  13J  per  cent, 
in  solids,  is  over  27  per  cent. 

I  quote  the  following  letter  from  a  London  chemist : 

"31  St.  Petersburgh  Place,  Bayswater,  W.  ) 

London,  December  15,  188 1.  } 
There  is  not  time  to  re-write.  I  would  just  add  that  the  stan- 
dard of  quality  of  milk,  fixed  by  the  Society  of  Public  Analysts,  is 
1 1.5  per  cent,  of  solids,  viz:  2.5  per  cent,  solid  fat  and  9-opercent. 
"  solid  not  fat."  Public  Inspectors  can  take  a  sample  anywhere  and 
at  any  time,  and. if  such  sample  is  found,  on  analysis,  to  contain 
than  1 1-5  per  cent.,  the  vendor  is  prosecuted  and  fined.  It  will,  there- 
fore, give  you  some  idea  of  the  control  we  exercise,  when  I  tell  you 
that  last  year  the  actual  value  of  the  milk  we  supplied  to  the  public 
exceeded  the  public  analyst's  standard  by  £5,760 — $28,800 — or 
equal  to  an  additional  dividend  on  our  stock  of  4  per  cent.  We 
paid  10  per  cent. 

I  am,  gentlemen,  yours  faithfully, 

G.  Mander  Allender." 

To  the  farmer  who  supplies  such  a  company  with  milk,  the  la- 
boratory is  simply  invaluable,  as  it  not  only  shows  the  true  value  of 
the  milk  he  delivers,  but  represents  to  the  public  the  necessity  of 
paying  him  a  just  return  for  his  capital  and  skill,  at  times  when  the 
market  is  being  flooded  by  deliverers  without  established  reputa- 
tions, at  prices  below  the  cost  of  production. 

The  President  then  called  on  Mr.  T.  C.  Campbell,  of  Man- 
chester, Mo.,  to  read  an  essay  contributed  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Brown, 
President  of  the  New  York  Plow  Co.,  entitled : 

Ensilage. 

The  one  commodity  which  has  never  yet  been  overproduced  or 
underconsumed  is  good  butter.  Three-fourths  of  the  people  of  this 
country  have  never  tasted  it.  It  is  not  to  be  found  in  either  of  the 
great  retail  markets  of  the  city  of  New  York,  Washington  and 


52       Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


Fulton,  and  the  restaurants  where  it  is  served  are  very  few  in 
number  and  known  only  to  the  initiated  resident  or  wealthy  visitor. 
It  is  almost  a  misfortune  to  have  acquired  the  habit  of  using  fine 
butter,  since  it  is  a  taste  that  must  often  be  shocked,  but  it  is  a 
tempting  field  for  those  manufacturers  who  have  the  capital  and  the 
skill.  It  requires  a  combination  of  the  best  milk  producing  food, 
the  creamiest  cows  and  the  well  equipped  and  well  managed  fac- 
tory. 

The  milking  should  be  done  by  women,  as  in  the  Channel 
Islands.  The  natural  sympathy  of  sex  has  a  soothing  effect  upon 
the  animals,  and  women's  hands  are  better  adapted  by  their  softness 
and  cleanliness  for  the  extraction  of  the  milk. 

But  a  home  is  not  the  proper  place,  and  women  who  are  inter- 
ested and  occupied  in  the  care  and  various  duties  of  the  family  are 
not  the  persons  to  produce  the  best  butter.  There  is  one  point, 
however,  in  which  the  dairy  butter  excels  the  creamery  butter.  It 
is  easier  for  the  housewife  to  cut  out  the  layers.  If  the  creamery 
too,  was  divided  by  sheets  of  white  paper  into  horizontal  layers  it 
would  do  away  with  this  little  objection.  The  largest  eastern 
breeders  of  fine  cattle  say  that  the  best  stock  of  cattle  is  being 
bought  by  the  farmers  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  I  have  never  seen 
this  part  of  our  country,  but  I  presume  that  it  is  liable  to  interruptions 
in  the  supply  of  green  fodder  by  drought  and  frost,  that  everywhere 
there  is  need  of  reservoirs  of  food — milk  exciting  food.  It  has 
always  heretofore  been  considered  in  the  Eastern  States  to  be  poor 
farming  to  sell  hay  and  straw  instead  of  consuming  it  on  the  farm, 
thereby  increasing  the  manure  supply,  and  a  poor  calculator  who 
has  his  cows  come  in  during  the  winter  season.  The  discovery  of 
the  method'  of  keeping  green  fodder  in  a  green  state  by  the  system 
of  ensilage,  which  is  now  in  its  eleventh  year  in  France  and  eight 
years  old  in  this  countrv,  has  reversed  these  rules.  It  has  made  the 
hay  crop  a  surplus  product  of  the  farm,  and  provides  a  food  where- 
by the  winter  butter  can  be  made  as  cheaply  as  the  summer  butter. 
It  has  doubled  the  value  of  the  corn  plant,  and  made  of  farming  a 
surer  and  more  attractive  occupation  than  before. 

The  cost  of  a  silo  is  entirely  in  the  power  of  the  farmer.  A 
trench,  tumulus,  or  hole-in-the-ground  silo  will  make  just  as  good 
ensilage  as  the  more  expensive  concrete  or  masonery  silos.  Safe 
from  frost,  fire,  vermin,  growing  in  fertile  soil  to  enormous  weight, 
maize  ensilage  is  the  cheapest  crop  to  produce  and  harvest.  The 
days  of  doubt  and  of  experiment  are  past,  and  those  farmers  who 
still  prefer  to  depend  upon  dry  fodder  from  their  meadows  and 
stacks,  and  upon  the  uncertain  root  crops  for  their  winter  cattle  food 
are  more  conservative  than  economical,  more  cautious  than  prudent, 
and  are  resisting  through  ignorance  and  inertia,  the  greatest  bless- 
ing that  has  ever  befallen  the  world,  adding  to  its  capacity  to  support 
life  at  least  ten  fold,  and  bringing  the  possibility  of  a  comfortable 
supply  of  animal  food  to  all  its  inhabitants. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


If  the  farmers  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  have  any  lingering 
doubt  as  to  the  healthfulness  of  maize  ensilage,  or  as  to  its  effect 
upon  the  product  of  the  dairy,  they  will  dismiss  them  forever  when 
they  come  to  visit  any  of  the  fine  farms  in  the  east,  that  are  run 
upon  that  principle. 

Cattle  costing  $10,000  to  $20,000  ea<5h,  are  fed  upon  it  at 
Loeser's  farm,  and  some  of  the  finest  Jersey  cattle  in  America  at 
Theodore  Haremeyer's  farm,  (both  in  New  Jersey)  where  the  very 
finest  butter  is  also  produced. 

Cattle  can  be  fattened  upon  maize  ensilage  without  any  grain, 
as  may  be  seen  at  the  farm  of  W.  H.  Gilbert,  of  Richland,  N.  Y., 
whose  butter  is  delicious,  and  whose  herd,  after  three  years  of 
ensilage  feeding,  are  as  healthy  and  high  spirited  as  any  in  America. 

Dr.  Pratt,  the  famous  Holstein  breeder  of  Illinois,  says,  Jan. 
2nd,  1884:  "I  am  too  busy  to  answer  the  questions  that  any  article 
on  ensilage  would  pall  out,  but,  I  am  using  ensilage  now  for  the 
fourth  year  from  my  ground  silo,  and  though  I  have  seen  a  great 
many  silos,  I  have  yet  to  find  one  where  the  ensilage  is  as  sweet 
and  green  as  mine.  Anyone  who  can  dig  a  hole  in  the  ground  5 
or  6  feet  deep,  fill  it  with  fine  cut  feed  and  cover  it  with  a  foot  of 
earth,  will  get  as  good  ensilage  from  it  as  though  he  spent  $1,000 
to  build  one.  There  is  also,  less  trouble  in  taking  it  out  and  no 
more  loss." 

The  farm  of  Francis  Morris,  of  Maryland,  (Ellicott  City,)  is 
the  real  Mecca  of  the  American  ensiloer,  and  Mr.  Morris  is  the 
true  prophet.  There  he  can  see  the  first  practical  silos  made  in  this 
country,  now  seven  years  old,  eight 'times  filled  with  more  than  800 
tons  of  fine  cut  maize  and  clover.  These  trenches  cost  only  a  few 
days  labor  of  oxen  and  scraper,  and  can  be  used  year  after  year. 

In  1880  there  were  five  silos  only  in  the  United  States ;  now  in 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  New  England,  there  are  several 
hundred  ;  and  thousands  will  be  built  the  coming  year. 

It  is  the  salvation  of  New  England,  where  the  abandonment  of 
farms  has  been  going  on  for  some  years,  and  the  cheaper  living 
foreigner  taking  the  place  of  the  Puritan  settlers  and- their  descend- 
ents. 

The  Mississippi  Valley  is  not  without  its  testimony.  Here  is 
a  letter  from  Sedalia,  Mo.,  Jan.  3rd,  1884,  from  a  farmer  who 
ensilaged  last  spring  several  hundred  tons  of  fine  cut  rye,  he  says: 
"I  built  a  second  silo  this  past  fall  80  feet  long,  16  feet  wide,  and 
24  feet  deep — divided  into  five  sections.  I  filled  four  sections  with 
soured  corn,  and  one  with  second  crop  clover.  I  have  been  feeding 
corn  ensilage  since  the  4th  of  November,  ancl  I  find  it  a  grand  food 
for  milch  cows  and  mules.  I  am  feeding  120  milch  cows  and  112 
mules  on  this  food.  My  horses,  mules  and  working  cattle  I  feed 
on  clover  ensilage.  My  silos  kept  splendidly,  only  a  little  on  top 
was  damaged.    I  cut  all  my  ensilage  with  a  cutter." 

J.  R.  Barrett. 


54 


Eeport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


When  the  farmers  of  this  great  valley,  blest  with  a  fertile  soil 
that  makes  production  cheap,  shall  have  realized  the  value  of  this 
system  and  shall  have  provided  the  animals  and  the  factories  pro- 
portioned to  their  vast  acreage,  the  days  of  suet  butter  and  lard  but- 
ter will  be  short.  Oleomargarine  came  as  a  welcome  relief  from 
the  nursery  of  rancid,  greasy  butter,  to  which  those  of  moderate 
income  had  to  confine  themselves.  Useful  and  valuable  it  has 
been,  but  it  leaves  a  tallowy  flavor  in  the  mouth,  and  it  must  go. 
The  great  discovery  of  Auguste  Goffart,  of  France,  comes  to  us  to 
giv.e  us  forever  more  the  fragrance  of  June  butter,  and  its  delicious 
rosy,  healthful  taste.  We  will  use  less  lard  too,  and  our  fried 
food  as  well  as  our  broiled,  will  be  more  digestible. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  frosted  stalks  which  cattle  will  not 
eat  are  so  improved  by  a  soiourn  in  the  silo  that  they  are  eaten  with 
avidity  in  less  than  30  days  from  the  field.  Stalks  from  which  corn 
is  husked  are  greatly  improved  by  being  cut  fine  and  put  under  con- 
tinuous pressure  in  a  silo. 

If  the  silo  had  been  patented  and  promulgated  with  the  interest 
and  energy  that  has  attached  to  barbed  wire  and  driven  wells,  they 
would  have  now  been  as  capacious  as  our  barns.  But  Mr.  Goffart 
gave  it  to  the  world,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  it  will  pass  over 
the  jealousy  of  the  scientists  and  bless  every  family  in  the  land,  a 
physical  Passover,  an  escape  from  misery. 

Ensilage  is  an  additional  argument  in  favor  of  free  trade. 
With  our  tropical  sunshine  and  invigorating  waters,  and  the  system 
of  ensilage  reservoirs  enabling  us  to  pour  forth  a  continuous  supply 
of  the  best  butter,  cheese,  meat  and  leather,  we  can  preserve  the 
balance  of  trade  without  any  tariff.  Its  effects  upon  immigration 
will  soon  be  immense.  As  much  greater  as  the  corn  plant  is  than 
meadow  grass,  so  will  the  capacity  of  this  country  to  support  life  be 
greater  than  the  acres  of  Europe.  Where  they  have  the  sunshine 
they  haven't  got  the  soil,  and  where  they  have  the  soil  they  haven't 
got  the  sunshine.  In  England,  however,  the  silo  has  been  found  to 
cover  the  evils  of  wet  weather  and  the  British  farmer  will  be  able 
to  secure  more  of  his  meadow  grasses  than  ever  before. 

Mr.  John  Y.  Sawyer,  of  Godfrey,  111.,  was  then  introduced  by 
President  Colman,  and  he  spoke  as  follows : 

Upon  request  of  Mr.  Sheppard,  Secretary  of  the  "  Mississippi 
Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association,"  I  will  relate  my  experi- 
ence, and  endeavor  to  help  those  in  need  of  such  information. 

Will  say,  to  begin  with,  that  I  never  saw  a  silo  until  I  built 
mine  ;  never  saw  a  concrete  wall  put  up  until  I  went  at  it,  and  had 
never  seen  ensilage  until  I  opened  my  silo.  I  have  made  a  few 
mistakes,  and  will  relate  them,  so  they  can  be  avoided  by  others. 
1.  The  roof  of  my  silo  leaked,  and  wherever  the  water  got  in  it 
rotted.  2.  I  did  not  have  weight  enough  ;  should  have  at  least  150  lbs. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


55 


to  the  square  foot  of  surface.  3.  The  walls  of  my  silo  were  not  as 
smooth  as  they  should  have  been. 

The  silo  was  built  on  a  steep  side  hill,  so  as  to  have  good  drain- 
age, and  be  more  convenient  in  filling,  as  well  as  feeding  my  cows ; 
have  the  cow  stable  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  only  a  little  above  the 
bottom  of  the  silo. 

I  commenced  by  building  a  shed  32  feet  long  by  14  feet  wide, 
early  in  the  spring,  and  worked  rainy  days  and  other  times  when 
not  occupied  with  farm  work,  thus  lessening  the  cost  very  materi- 
ally. Inside  this  shed  I  made  an  excavation  24  feet  long  by  12  feet 
wide  and  10  feet  deep.  I  then  took  a  scantling  12  feet  long,  2  by  6 
inches,  set  one  end  in  the  ground  14  inches  from  the  bank,  with 
edge  of  scantling  toward  the  bank,  careful  to  get  it  perpendicular ; 
then  nail  fast  to  the  shed.  I  used  two  of  these  on  each  side,  and 
three  on  each  end.  Next  get  a  plank,  2  by  12  inches,  22  feet  long, 
for  each  side,  and  one  9  feet  8  inches  long  for  each  end ;  let  the  side 
plank  reach  by  the  end  plank  the  thickness  of  the  same ;  the  end 
plank  will  then  hold  the  side  plank  in  place.  Thus  I  have  a  cavity 
of  one  foot  thick  all  around  the  silo.  The  concrete  is  made  by 
putting  four  parts  of  sand  to  one  of  Louisville  cement ;  mix  dry  in 
a  mortar  box;  then  wet  and  mix  again ;  add  five  parts  of  coarse 
gravel ;  mix  thorougly  and  fill  the  cavity.  If  stone  is  plentiful,  you 
can  put  them  in  the  middle  of  the  wall,  being  careful  not  to  let  them 
come  to  the  edge  of  the  wall ;  the  concrete  will  set  in  one  day,  so 
the  board  can  be  raised  10  inches,  leaving  a  lap  of  2  inches,  and 
proceed  as  before.  After  reaching  the  level  of  the  ground,  scant- 
ling and  plank  can  be  put  up  as  on  the  inside.  The  floor  is  made 
of  1  part  cement  to  4  of  sand  and  gravel.  I  used  2J  bbls.  of 
cement  at  $1.50  per  bbl.  ;  the  lumber  cost  $35. 

I  have  nothing  to  sell.  When  I  left  home  I  expected  to  see 
something  and  hear  something  about  the  creamery  interests.  I 
advocate  no  patent  rights — I  sell  no  salt.  My  cows  are  the  pictures 
of  health.  They  are  not  hog  fat ;  I  do  not  want  that.  I  feed  2 
quarts  of  wheat  bran  and  40  pounds  of  ensilage  twice  a  day,  and 
with  it  a  little  hay.  I  planted  the  corn  for  my  silo  June  2.  The 
"  early  yellow'"  and  "  large  white  "  were  the  varieties  planted.  I 
prefer  the  white,  as  the  stalks  are  larger.  I  commenced  filling  my 
silo  August  27.  The  work  occupied  about  five  days,  and  about  35 
tons  were  put  in.  The  silo  was  10  by  10  by  22  feet ;  the  contents 
settled  three  feet,  and  it  was  weighted,  with  from  90  to  100  lbs.  to 
the  square  foot.  I  will  not  stop  short  of  150  lbs.  to  the  square 
foot  next  year.  The  silo  was  opened  November  10,  and  I  began 
to  feed  from  18  to  20  lbs  per  day  to  five  cows.  I  weighed  the  milk 
for  the  following  four  days,  and  the  result  was — 

First  day,  49  pounds. 

Second  day,  54  " 

Third  day,         -       -       -       -       -  55J 
Fourth  day,  57  u 


56       Keport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


A  few  days  later  one  milking  weighed  30  lbs.  ;  the  butter  was 
of  a  good  golden  color,  and  I  made  25  lbs.  per  week,  against  22 
and  23  lbs.  previously,  while  the  cows  were  feeding  on  good  pas- 
ture. I  will  make  25  lbs.  this  week.  It  is  now  10  weeks  since  I 
commenced  to  feed. 

The  ensilage  I  made  is  said  by  experts  to  be  of  a  very  good 
quality,  if  somewhat  more  tart  than  it  should  be ;  and  I  have 
been  told  that  additional  pressure  is  advantageous.  I  cut  straight 
down  into  the  silo.  Below  three  feet  I  found  no  mold ;  but  there 
was  a  slight  indication  of  mold  above  that  level.  The  silo  is  made 
of  concrete.  In  the  cold  snap  the  milk  and  cream  froze,  and  I 
made  less  than  25  lbs.  a  week ;  before  that,  my  butter  had  not 
varied  a  quarter  of  a  pound  a  week.  Since  the  cold  weather  I  have 
regained  the  accustomed  regularity. 

Query — Did  you  get  the  same  amount  of  butter  from  60  lbs. 
of  milk  as  from  the  40  lbs.  obtained  before  you  fed  ensilage  ? 

Ans. — I  was  making  from  22  to  23  lbs.  of  butter  before  I  fed 
ensilage;  afterwards  I  made  25  lbs.  The  increased  flow  of  milk 
reached  its  maximum  during  the  first  two  weeks.  I  do  not  think 
there  is  as  much  butter  proportionately  in  the  milk  made  on  ensilage 
as  on  dry  feed.  There  is  an  increase,  you  will  note,  of  3  lbs.  of 
butter,  while  the  milk  increase  is  20  lbs.,  or  one-half.  I  put  a  roof 
on  my  silo.  In  Maryland,  I  understand,  they  cover  it  with  earth. 
I  shall  improve  it  by  putting  a  tighter  roof  on  and  more  cement  at  the 
bottom.  The  butter  made  from  this  milk  does  not  color  so  yellow  as 
June  butter,  but  the  color  is  good.  I  had  five  acres  of  corn  planted 
on  ground  that  would  not  raise  five  tons  of  hay ;  it  was  clay  ground. 
A  cow  will  eat  two  tons  of  timothy  hay  in  a  winter ;  five  tons  will 
keep  two  and  a  half  cows.  I  fed  five  cows  and  two  calves,  who  ate 
one-third  of  the  ensilage.  I  had  three  teams  and  five  men  em- 
ployed five  days  to  fill  the  silo.  Thirty-five  tons  of  ensilage  will 
feed  six  cows  six  months.  It  is  best  to  use  the  cycle  cutter.  We 
are  building  a  silo  65  feet  long  and  25  feet  wide. 

Prof.  Sanborn — Those  who  have  taken  up  ensilage  think  it  the 
greatest  thing  on  earth ;  assertions  have  been  made  more  rash  than 
those  of  our  friend.  It  has  been  found  from  reports  made  from  100 
silos  that  they  cost  $3  per  ton  capacity.  If  one  acre  averages 
twenty  tons,  that  acre  costs  you  $60.  The  average  value  of  farms 
is  $20  per  acre.  In  order  to  put  in  a  silo,  you  must  pay  three  times 
the  value  of  your  land ;  the  interest  on  the  cost  would  pay  for  dry 
feed.  An  ordinary  farm  will  grow  twenty  tons  of  corn  fodder  where 
three  tons  of  hay  will  grow.  It  has  been  agreed  that  $2  a  ton  is 
the  cost  of  handling  it,  and  an  additional  expense  of  $40  is  added* 
Do  these  figures  suggest  that  silos  pay  ? 

Mr.  Sawyer — In  regard  to  cost,  Prof.  Sanborn  omits  to  men- 
tion the  other  feed  used  with  hay.  I  had  sent  to  me  a  copy  of  the 
report  of  the  Agricultural  Department  at  Washington,  and  I 
studied  it  very  carefully ;  their  experiments  proved  that  silos  were 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  5? 


not  correct,  and  I  have  proved  that  they  are.  I  will  agree  to  fur- 
nish silos  for  less  than  $2  for  each  ton  capacity.  My  silo  cost  $66.50, 
and  will  last  a  century;  it  is  as  solid  as  a  stone  wall.  The  most 
expensive  are  built  in  the  East,  where  material  costs  more.  I  would 
be  glad  for  you  to  visit  me,  every  one  of  you,  and  see  my  silo. 
There  is  no  money  in  it  for  me,  but  I  want  you  to  see  my  cows ;. 
they  are  not  big  ones,  but  they  are  healthy. 

Mr.  Hobson,  of  Illinois — I  want  to  impress  upon  you  the  idea  of 
the  proper  feed  for  milch  cows.  There  are  feeds  better  calculated 
to  produce  butter  and  milk  than  others ;  grass,  in  my  region  is  the 
best,  and  produces  a  better  flow  of  milk  than  any  other  food.  AIL 
other  feeds  must  give  the  palm  to  this.  Dried  hay  cannot  produce 
milk:  nor  dried  bran  and  hay.  There  are  two  sides  to  the  milk 
question:  Will  it  pay,  or  will  it  not?  I  have  never  tried  ensilage, 
but  I  think  it  is  the  thing,  The  milk  is  87^  per  cent,  water,  and 
where  that  water  is  to  come  from  in  feeding  dry  fodder  I  cannot  say. 
To  be  sure,  you  may  give  the  cow  lots  of  water  to  drink,  but  I 
think  it  would  be  best  to  give  it  in  the  natural  way,  through  the 
medium  of  the  food. 

Mr.  Curtis — Truman  A.  Cole,  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  has  twenty 
cows,  and  the  product  of  each  cow  is  300  lbs.  of  butter  a  year. 
He  feeds  dry  orchard  grass,  cut  early,  and  bran  and  oats. 

The  Hon.  Hiram  Smith,  of  Sheboygan  Falls,  was  then  intro- 
duced in  complimentary  language  by  President  Colman,  and  he 
proceeded  to  read  his  address,  as  follows: 

lam  asked  to  say  something  "On  the  different  systems  em- 
ployed in  the  treatment  of  milk  and  cream,  in  order  to  produce  the 
best  grade  of  butter."  This  subject  will  necessarily  include  the 
raising  of  cream,  ripening  the  same,  and  churning  and  working  the 
butter. 

There  are  many  different  methods  of  separating  cream  from 
milk,  but,  strictly  speaking,  there  is  but  one  system,  and  that  is  the 
system  of  force.  This  should  be  thoroughly  understood,  as  it  will 
protect  dairymen  from  imposition  of  inventors,  who  herald  their 
devices  as  a  new  discovery,  a  new  system,  whereas  it  is  only  a  dif- 
ferent method  of  the  same  old  system  of  force.  Cream  being 
lighter  than  milk,  is  the  only  reason  why  it  can  be  separatad  from 
it,  the  difference  in  specific  gravity  being  so  slight  (I  think  only 
about  three  or  four  degrees),  makes  it  quite  difficult  of  separation 
by  unskillful  means,  however  elaborate. 

The  system  now  almost  universally  in  use,  to  separate  cream 
from  milk,  is  the  force  of  cold  applied  to  milk,  or  to  air  or  water 
surrounding  the  receptacle  containing  the  milk.  When  we  know, 
accurately,  just  what  this  cold  application  really  performs,  just  what 
work  it  does,  and  always  exactly  the  same  work,  whether  in  dog- 
days  or  December,  we  shall  be  better  judges  of  the  many  devices, 
whether  in  the  form  of  pans  and  cans,  advertised  for  raising  cream. 


58        Eeport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


All  can  readily  understand  the  practical  working  of  the  force 
of  cold.  In  walking  along  a  railroad  track  they  will  see  that  there 
is  a  vacant  space  between  the  ends  of  the  rails.  When  the  mer- 
cury stands  at  zero  and  below,  the  cold  atmosphere  has  forced  the 
rails  into  shorter  length  than  they  are  in  ordinary  weather,  and  quite 
a  good  deal  shorter  than  when  the  mercury  stands  at  ninety  above 
zero  ;  in  other  words,  the  force  of  cold  has  condensed — contracted 
the  rails  into  less  dimensions. 

Take  another  illustration,  with  which  all  farmers  are  familiar — 
a  common  wagon  wheel ;  in  dry  weather,  of  course  the  wood  work 
of  the  wheel  shrinks  some,  but  the  chief  difficulty  is  in  very  warm 
weather — the  heat  expands  the  tire  ;  it  is  longer,  and  consequently 
loose,  and  we  have  been  educated  to  pour  water  upon  the  wheel,  to 
swell  the  wood  work,  and  so  tighten  the  tire.  While  it  slowly  does 
this,  it  at  the  same  time  does  much  more  effective  work  in  cooling 
the  tire,  and  instantly  contracting  or  shortening  it ;  but  of  course  the 
(relief  is  only  temporary. 

These  illustrations  are  only  given  to  fix  in  your  minds  that  cold 
contracts — and  heat  expands — many  substances,  among  which  is 
milk,  as  well  as  most  metals.  The  whole  secret  and  philosophy  of 
surrounding  milk  with  cold  air  or  water,  is  that  the  force  of  cold  con- 
tracts— condenses — all  the  ingredients  of  milk,  except  the  fat  or 
cream ;  these  ingredients,  becoming  condensed,  are  heavier,  and 
seek  lower  positions,  displacing  and  sending  up  the  lighter  fat  or 
cream,  which  is  not  affected  by  the  cold,  but  retains  its  original  di- 
mensions, and  floats  more  easily,  as  the  balance  of  the  milk  becomes 
more  condensed  and  heavy ;  therefore  the  rapidity  of  cooling  deter- 
mines the  time  of  separation.  If  brought  to  near  freezing  point,  it 
is  done  in  forty  minutes  ;  if  to  45  or  50  degrees,  it  is  done  perfectly 
between  milkings. 

If  the  milk  is  placed  in  cans  eight  inches  in  diameter,  twenty 
inches  high,  holding  about  thirty-seven  pounds,  and  placed  in  a 
•covered  tank,  with  spring  water  at  50  degrees,  running  through,  or 
"with  well  water  and  a  bushel  of  broken  ice  to  300  lbs.  of  milk,  the 
separation  of  the  cream  from  the  milk  is  positively  secured  in  great 
perfection,  regardless  of  the  weather.  This  can  be  done  in  various 
ways,  either  by  submerging  the  cans  in  ice  water,  or  by  placing  cans 
in  water  as  deep  as  the  milk,  in  tank  or  pools,  or  in  bureaus  with  ice 
over  the  cans,  after  the  plan  of  cold  store  rooms. 

Another  method  is  to  place  blocks  of  ice  in  the  bottom  of  cans 
or  vats,  confined  with  wire  screens,  and  the  milk  immediately  poured 
upon  the  ice  ;  others  with  a  tube  in  the  centre  of  the  can,  to  assist  in 
cooling  the  milk. 

There  is  also  the  large  pan,  within  another  pan,  with  cold  water 
placed  under  and  around  the  milk  pan  ;  but  all  these  several  methods 
are  one  system  of  rapidly  cooling  the  milk  by  the  force  of  cold,  and 
each  dairyman  can  find  for  himself  which  is  the  most  convenient 
and  economical,  ice  or  water;  they  are  all  seeking  the  same  end — 
of  forcing  the  cream  from  the  milk  while  it  is  yet  sweet. 


Mississippi  Vllley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association.  59 


There  is  another  method  of  separating  the  cream  from  milk,  by 
the  centrifugal  machine,  the  same  as  syrup  is  forced  from  sugar,  or 
honey  from  the  comb.  Although  this  does  not  use  ice  or  water, 
yet  it  is  done  by  the  force  of  mechanical  power ;  this  latter  method 
is  the  most  expeditious  way  of  converting  milk  into  butter  and  skim 
cheese,  now  in  use.  At  present  it  is  quite  expensive,  but  by  im- 
proved machinery  and  competition,  may  eventually  supercede  all 
other  methods. 

You  will  see  by  the  foregoing  remarks,  that  the  several  devices 
are  seeking,  practically,  the  same  end ;  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  good  butter  can  be,  and  is  made,  with  all  of  them  ;  and  yet 
there  are  advantages  and  disadvantages,  more  or  less,  attached  to 
them.  In  all  open  setting  of  milk,  either  in  common  milk  pans  or 
deep  setters,  in  open  pools,  or  the  large  pan  within  a  pan,  are  all 
dangerously  exposed  to  dust,  flies,  and  any  unpleasant  odor  that 
may  be  floating  in  the  surrounding  atmosphere.  The  cream  being 
the  coldest  surface  presented,  condenses  the  atmosphere  which  is 
settled  upon,  or  is  attracted  to  it  like  drops  of  water  upon  an  ice 
pitcher  in  a  warm  room. 

When  the  weather  was  cold,  clear  and  pure,  I  have  made  very 
good  butter  from  these  open  setters ;  but  when  the  weather  was 
warm,  muggy  and  impure,  it  required  great  diligence  and  experi- 
ence to  avoid  losses  greater  than  the  profits ;  whereas,  with  cov- 
ered setters,  or  submerged  cans,  all  the  danger  of  dust,  flies,  un- 
pleasant odors  and  unfavorable  weather,  are  positively  avoided. 
But  little  experience  is  required ;  a  thirty  cent  thermometer,  placed 
in  the  panel  of  the  tank,  indicates  the  temperature,  and  if  it  is  45 
or  50  degrees  positive  safety  is  secured  between  milkings.  My  ex- 
perience teaches  me  to  discard  all  devices  or  methods  that  require 
hand  skimming ;  it  is  needless  work,  that  nobody  pays  for,  and  no- 
body thanks  for,  or  ought  to,  as  the  great  army  of  over-worked 
women,  with  their  ten  or  fifteen  cent  butter,  can  testify ;  besides, 
the  cold,  sweet  milk,  separated  from  the  cream,  in  eight  or  ten 
hours,  is  much  more  valuable  for  feeding  pigs,  calves,  or  to  work 
into  skim  cheese,  than  any  open  set  milk,  standing  (as  it  has  to) 
twenty-four  or  thirty-six  hours,  to  secure  the  separation  of  the 
cream.  The  milk,  meanwhile,  in  summer,  approaches  or  reaches 
acidity,  which  greatly  lessens  its  value  for  feeding  purposes,  and  is 
ruined  for  making  cheese. 

The  management  of  the  cream  is  equally  as  important  as  the 
care  of  the  milk ;  the  cream  from  two  milkings  should  always  con- 
stitute one  churning,  and  thoroughly  incorporated  together,  fre- 
quently stirred  and  areated,  so  as  to  ripen  it  in  twenty- four  hours — 
this  will  be  indicated  by  a  slight  acidity,  not  enough  to  materially 
thicken  it.  This  point  is  best  reached,  in  summer,  by  standing  the 
cream  in  a  cool,  dry  place;  and,  in  winter,  the  cream  should  be 
warmed  to  62  degrees,  and  kept  in  a  warm  room ;  and  churned,  in 
summer,  at  58  degrees,  and,  in  winter,  at  62  to  64  degrees.    A  re. 


60       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


volying  churn,  without  inside  fixtures,  is  preferred  ;  coloring  matter 
should  be  added  to  the  cream,  sufficient  to  color  the  butter  to  June 
color;  a  steady  uniform  motion  of  the  churn,  if  the  cream  is  in  the 
right  condition,  should  produce  the  butter  in  from  thirty  to  forty- 
five  minutes.  As  soon  as  the  cream  breaks,  and  the  butter  appears 
in  granular  form,  the  churning  should  stop,  and  the  butter-milk  be 
drawn  off,  and  cold  brine  added  sufficient  to  wash  out  all  the  butter- 
milk, while  the  butter  is  yet  in  granular  form,  looking  much  like  wet 
wheat — when  the  butter  should  be  taken  on  to  the  worker,  and  one 
ounce  of  fine  salt  to  the  pound  of  butter,  evenly  sifted  upon  it,  and 
slightly  worked  into  a  solid  mass.  After  standing  two  or  three 
hours,  where  it  will  not  become  soft  or  very  hard,  it  can  be  re- 
worked until  somewhat  dry,  and  packed  and  set  in  a  refrigerator 
until  it  is  solid,  and  then  sent  to  market  before  it  is  a  week  old. 
Unless  it  is  sent  to  a  cold  store-room,  for  winter  use,  by  closely  ob- 
serving the  above  directions,  an  operator,  with  three  days  teaching,, 
can  make  butter  that  will  command  the  highest  price  in  market, 
bringing  contentment  and  profit  to  the  dairyman,  and  satisfaction  to 
the  consumer. 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  essay,  Mr.  Smith  referred  to  the  pack- 
ing of  butter,  remarking  that  it  should  be  packed  immediately,  for  if 
it  remains  long  exposed  there  is  a  loss  of  aroma.  Heat  and  ex- 
posure to  the  air  will  decrease  the  aroma  of  the  best  butter ;  and 
men  are  not  willing  to  pay  for  that  aroma  when  it  is  lost.  The  old 
idea  that  butter  will  be  streaked  if  it  does  not  stand  over  night  is  a 
fallacy ;  the  best  way  to  do  is,  immediately  after  taking  it  from  the 
.churn  to  beat  it  down  in  a  cask  and  the  next  day  work  it  over  again. 
There  is  no  mystery  in  the  making  of  butter,  though  everyone 
seems  to  think  there  is ;  I  could  teach  a  man  in  three  days  to  make 
just  as  good  butter  as  if  he  were  at  it  a  year.  Every  portion  and 
detail  of  the  manufacture  is  written ;  with  reading  and  observation 
there  is  no  danger  of  failure,  the  process  is  philosophical.  There 
is  much  in  the  temperature  for  setting,  but  all  these  facts  can  be 
obtained  in  writing. 

Mr.  Douglas — It  is  well  known  that  most  of  those  who  make 
fine  butter  in  Germany  make  it  from  sweet  cream. 

Mr.  Smith — It  is  not  saleable. 

Mr.  Douglas — I  have  been  corresponding  with  a  maker  for 
some  time  who  lives  near  Brookline,  Mass.,  and  who  receives  $1.25 
a  lb.  for  his  butter;  he  says  he  churns  sweet  cream  and  salts  it 
lightly.  No  one  cares  to  pay  enough  for  it  here.  The  Brookline 
maker  did  not  wash  the  butter,  he  worked  it  out  and  treated  it  with 
the  extreme  of  carefulness.  I  have  tried  the  plan  and  find  that  it  makes 
better  flavored  butter,  but  they  claim  it  will  not  keep.  We  do  not 
want  to  keep  it ;  there  is  sale  for  every  pound  of  good  butter  that 
can  be  made.  I  know  a  Mr.  Havermeyer  who  has  100  cows,  and 
gets  75  cents  a  pound  for  his  butter. 

Mr.  Sawyer — Yes,  and  he  feeds  ensilage,  and  has  for  three  years. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


61 


Mr.  Curtis — I  find  from  a  published  report  that  my  statement 
regarding  the  time  for  churning  was  misconstrued.  It  said  that 
from  400  to  6o°  was  the  proper  temperature,  properly  the  tempera- 
ture should  not  be  below  54 °,  and  58  0  is  the  average. 

The  essay  by  John  Stewart,  of  Anamosa,  la.,  was  then  read  by 
Mr.  W.  N.  Tivy,  it  was  as  follows: 

The  Profits  of  the  Creamery  Versus  the  Dairy. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  dairy  and  Creamery  As- 
sociation:  Regretting  my  inability  to  be  present  at  your  first  meet- 
ing, I  will  contribute  a  few  thoughts  upon  the  subject  assigned  me 
by  your  secretary,  and  will  condense  my  ideas  in  as  few  words  as 
possible.  The  concentration  of  capital  and  associate  effort  has  long 
been  recognized  as  necessary  in  the  accomplishment  of  large  enter- 
prises. Without  the  concentration  of  capital  we  would  have  no 
telegraph,  railroads,  canals  nor  bridges  ;  and  the  list  might  be  con- 
tinued until  you  would  get  tired  of  hearing  it.  What  is  true  of 
those  large  enterprises  is  true  of  smaller  industries.  It  is  in  the 
recollection  of  many  of  us,  when  our  clothing  was  made  at  home. 
The  wool  was  carded  by  hand,  then  spun  by  the  old  spinning  wheel, 
and  there  were  few  houses,  especially  in  the  country,  where  you 
would  not  find  the  old  loom.  Who  would  think  now,  that  it  is  the 
part  of  economy  to  make  our  own  clothing  by  hand  ?  Now  this 
dairy  question  is  not  an  exception  to  this  rule.  One  of  the  advant- 
ages of  this  creamery  system  of  butter  making  is,  that  it  is  furnishing 
a  finer  article  of  butter  than  was  ever  produced  by  the  private  dairy. 
This  is  admitted  by  all  who  are  conversant  with  the  trade.  The 
fact  that  it  sells  for  twice  as  much  as  the  average  of  the  private 
dairy,  leaves  no  room  for  extended  argument  on  this  point.  I  will 
endeavor  to  show  briefly  some  of  the  reasons  why  the  creamery,  or 
co-operative  system,  should  be  generally  adopted,  especially  here  in 
the  west,  where  the  greater  number  of  the  farming  communities 
have  not  the  means  to  fix  up  properly  for  private  dairying,  as  it  re- 
quires the  expenditure  of  from  500  to  700  dollars  for  buildings  and 
fixtures,  necessary  to  take  care  of  the  milk  of  thirty  cows. 

The  subject  assigned  me,  of  the  profits  of  the  creamery  system 
over  the  private  dairy  you  will  readily  see,  cannot  be  properly  dis- 
cussed without  the  use  of  figures.  I  am  aware  figures  are  not  as 
interesting  to  present  to  an  audience  as  something  else,  and  I  will 
indulge  as  sparingly  as  the  subject  will  permit.  To  illustrate  this 
subject  more  clearly,  we  will  suppose  twenty  farmers  decide  to  de- 
vote part  of  their  attention  to  dairying.  They  have  thirty  cows  each. 
They  invest  500  dollars  each,  in  buildings  and  fixtures.  This  foots 
up  in  the  aggregate  ten  thousand  dollars.  Interest  on  this  sum  at 
western  rates,  would  be  one  thousand  dollars  per  annum.  Add  to 
this  the  repairs  and  replacement  of  worn  out  fixtures,  and  at  the  end 
of  ten  years,  it  foots  up  the  snug  sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars. 


62 


Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


Suppose  these  same  men  decide  to  go  on  in  the  co-operative 
plan.  They  invest  two  thousand  dollars  in  buildings  and  fixtures. 
This  sum  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  take  care  of  the  milk  from  600 
cows.  Interest  on  this  sum  would  be  $200  per  annum.  Add  re- 
pairs, and  in  ten  years  it  has  grown  to  $6,000.  Now  at  the  end  of 
ten  years,  the  buildings  have  all  depreciated  25  per  cent.  The 
private  dairy  buildings  and  fixtures  are  only  worth  $7,500.  The 
creamery  buildings  and  fixtures  are  now  only  worth  $1,500.  Depre- 
ciation in  favor  of  the  creamery,  $2,000.  Difference  of  interest  and 
repairs,  $16,000.     Total,  $18,000. 

So  much  for  the  investment.  The  next  thing  we  will  notice  is, 
the  difference  in  the  yield  of  butter  per  100  lbs.  of  milk.  The  yield 
with  the  average  dairymen  is  about  one-third  more  in  favor  of  the 
creamery.  But  we  are  supposing  these  twenty  men  to  be  reason- 
ably well  fixed  for  dairying.  The  yield,  compared  with  such  dairies, 
would  average  about  one-half  pound  of  butter  to  100  lbs  of  milk,  in 
favor  of  the  creamery  system.  Suppose  these  600  cows  produce 
7,500  lbs.  butter.  The  creamery  system  would  produce  84,725  lbs. 
Difference  9,725  lbs.,  at  25  cts.  per  lb.,  would  be  $2,431.25;  for 
ten  years,  $24,312.50.  Then  add,  say  five  cents  per  lb.  difference 
in  price,  and  we  have  $4,236.25,  or,  in  ten  years,  $42,362.50.  We 
will  next  compare  the  expense  of  manufacture :  A  private  dairy 
of  thirty  cows  will  require  one  girl  extra  help  at,  say  $2  per  week ; 
board,  $2  per  week — total,  $208  per  annum.  This  would  make 
for  the  twenty  dairymen  $4,360  per  annum.  A  creamery,  with  600 
cows,  will  require,  say  one  superintendent,  at  $600 ;  one  assistant 
superintendent,  $480;  one  light  help,  $360;  one  girl  help,  $208; 
hauling  milk,  $2  per  cow,  for  season,  $1,200 — total,  $2,848.  Dif- 
ference in  favor  of  creamery  per  annum  $1,512  in  ten  years.  This 
sums  up  for  the  twenty  dairymen,  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  as  fol- 
lows :  Gain  for  creamery  over  private  dairy,  in  investment,  $18,000 ; 
gain  in  yield,  $25,312.50;  gain  in  price  of  butter,  $42,362.50;  gain 
in  expense  of  manufacture,  $15,120 — total  gain  in  ten  years,  $99,795, 
or  about  $5,000  for  each  dairy. 

Now  t  will  compare,  briefly,  the  average  dairy,  as  they  are 
run  here  in  the  West.  The  600  cows,  in  an  average  dairy,  would 
produce  about  56,000  lbs.,  which,  at  16  cents,  would  bring  $8,960. 
The  creamery  system,  with  the  same  milk,  would  produce  84,725 
lbs.,  which  at  30  cents  per  lb.,  would  bring  $25,417.50.  Differ- 
ence in  favor  of  the  creamery,  $16,457,50;  for  ten  years,  $164,575. 
As  there  is  not  generally  much  money  invested  in  the  buildings  and 
fixtures  of  the  average  dairy,  it  would  probably  be  about  the  same 
in  the  aggregate  as  the  creamery ;  but  there  would  still  be  the  gain 
in  help,  which,  added  to  the  above,  we  have,  in  ten  years,  the  enor- 
mous sum  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  thousand  six  hundred 
and  ninety-five  dollars  ($179,695)  in  favor  of  the  creamery  system. 
I  am  aware  there  are  persons  who  will  question  these  figures,  and 
will  think  them  above  the  mark ;  but  I  am  not  guessing  at  these 
hings,  and  know  them  to  be  below  rather  than  above. 


Mississippi  Valley  Daity  and  Creamery  Association. 


If  the  above  figures  are  correct,  and  one  neighborhood  within 
a  radius  of  three  miles  is  losing  $179,695  every  ten  years,  what  is 
the  loss  to  the  whole  country? 

Mr.  Addy — There  is,  in  the  market,  what  is  known  as  imitation 
creamery  butter.  As  it  is  commercially  understood,  this  butter  is  com- 
posed of  the  fancy  grades  of  unsalted  stock,  gathered  from  farmers. 
It  comes  from  common  centers,  and  is  worked  up  and  stamped. 
Farmers  with  from  two  to  four  cows  make  a  little  butter ;  a  buyer 
purchases  this,  and  the  finest  is  selected  ;  the  salt  is  washed  out  with 
cold  brine,  and  it  is  put  together  in  a  mass,  mashed  with  men's 
hands,  re-salted,  and  packed.  The  best  of  the  leavings  is  put  up, 
and  is  called  Factory  butter.  Then  the  remainder  is  put  up,  and 
called  No.  2  Factory  butter.  There  is  none  of  the  bad  quality  of 
butter  used.  This  Imitation  Creamery  is  being  adulterated  to  some 
extent,  and  also  the  Creamery  butter.  It  will  never  do  to  allow 
Creamery  butter  to  be  adulterated.  I  have  heard  of  men  using  from 
10  to  15  per  cent,  of  neutral  oil.  When  Mr.  Kilborne,  of  Elgin, 
failed,  one  of  his  largest  items  of  assets  was  "  neutral  oil."  I  asked 
one  of  his  creditors  what  it  was  for?    To  put  in  the  cheese,  he  said. 

Essay  by  G.  E.  Wetzel,  on  the  Manufacture  of  Butter. 
Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention : 

It  has  been  but  a  short  time  ago  that  the  manufacture  of  butter 
in  our  section  was  in  its  incipiency,  that  product  making  its  appear- 
ance in  our  market  in  very  small  quantities,  such  as  small  tubs, 
pails,  caddies,  etc. 

At  that  time,  the  dealer's  occupation  was  very  small,  grocers 
and  dealers  buying  very  limited,  in  a  small,  peddling  way.  Look 
at  the  large  change  in  affairs ;  they  now  buy  by  tens  and  twenty 
tubs — even  more,  at  times — and  the  butter  commission  merchant's 
occupation  has  become  a  pleasant  and  profitable  one,  which  is 
largely  attributed  to  the  fact  that  conventions  like  these  have  been 
held  all  through  the  country,  disseminating  knowledge  and  enlight- 
ening persons  concerned  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  dairy  and 
its  products. 

You  have  all,  collectively  and  individually,  like  myself,  in- 
formed patrons,  not  only  of  the  requirements  of  our  market,  but 
instructed  them  in  the  manufacture  of  the  finest  grades  that  can  be 
produced  from  the  dairy. 

I  wish,  right  here,  to  say  a  few  words  on  our  great  draw- 
back to  the  immense  and  growing  dairy  and  mercantile  interest  of 
the  country.  There  was  a  time  when  our  goods  were  sought  after  by 
foreign  countries  and  consumers,  and  it  then  looked  as  if  a  bright 
and  brilliant  future  awaited  the  butter  interest  of  this  new  country, 
as  I  may  say,  until  suddenly  the  manufacture  of  ruinous,  bogus 
compounds,  styled  butterine,  lardine,  oleomargarine,  etc.,  which 
were  at  once  exported  in  large  quantities  to  foreign  countries,  and 
palmed  off  as  the  genuine  article  on  consumers  seeking  our  goods. 


64       Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Meeting  of  the 


Of  course,  the  disreputable  stuff  soon  showed  the  swindle  on 
the  face  of  it,  which  induced  foreigners  to  believe  all  our  products, 
or  the  greater  proportion  of  what  we  exported,  was  nothing  but  a 
swindle  and  a  cheat.  Even  the  best  of  our  productions  (which  are 
the  finest  in  the  world),  have  been  since,  and  are  up  to  the  present 
day,  looked  upon  with  suspicion  and  distrust,  to  such  an  extent  that 
even  when  goods  are  as  good  as  represented,  it  is  hard  to  get  pur- 
chasers to  pay  their  intrinsic  value.  It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  cal- 
culate the  damage  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  this  vile  compound 
has  done  to  this  country,  and  to  every  farmer,  dairyman  and  com- 
mission merchant  engaged  in  this  heretofore  profitable  business  of 
handling  pure  dairy  products. 

To  my  mind,  gentlemen,  as  well  as  others,  more  thoughtful  on 
this  subject,  it  must  be  plain,  that  had  those  bogus  compounds  not 
been  introduced,  and  so  exported  as  to  deceive  foreign  consumers 
and  dealers,  the  large  proportion  to  which  our  export  trade  of  dairy 
products  would  have  attained  would  be  something  wonderful,  and 
pleasant  to  contemplate,  way  beyond  the  meager  and  insignificant 
foreign  demand  that  now  exists.  The  consequence  is,  there  is  left 
on  our  hands  a  large  amount  of  dairy  products,  which  might  other- 
wise have  been  disposed  of  at  paying  prices,  instead  of  being  stowed 
away  and  held  in  cold  storage,  for  a  possible  future  buyer,  until  it 
will  have  attained  that  old  flavor,  so  common  to  held  stock,  when 
many  inexperienced  persons  may  be  deceived  into  the  belief  that 
it  is  otherwise  than  pure  butter ;  and,  finally,  we  may  have  to  turn 
it  into  the  baker  trade,  for  a  mere  song.  This,  as  every  one  con- 
cerned knows,  is  not  only  a  loss  to  the  dairymen,  but  to  the  com- 
mission merchants  and  dealers  of  the  entire  country. 

What  we  want,  now,  is  a  return  to  where  we  left  off.  Let  the 
country  return  to  the  production  and  handling  of  nothing  but  gen- 
uine goods.  This  country  is  large  enough  to  produce  any  amount 
of  fine  pure  butter,  enough  to  supply  the  world,  if  needed ;  and  as 
the  demand  increases,  so  will  the  product. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  say  that  our  market  has,  right  along, 
been  well  supplied,  we  having  no  difficulty  in  securing  all  the  pure 
product  necessary  to  carry  us  through,  and  obtaining  good  prices  for 
the  same.  New  houses  are  continually  springing  into  existence,  all  in 
a  prosperous  condition. 

In  addition,  Mr.  Tivy  said  that  he  had  a  herd  of  Jersey  cows, 
from  four  or  five  of  which  he  got  all  the  butter  there  was  in  the 
milk  in  the  first  churning ;  from  four  or  five  the  yield  was  as  much 
in  the  second  churning  as  it  was  in  the  first,  and  the  third  was  only 
slightly  inferior.  A  few  of  the  cows'  milk  produced  an  ounce  or 
two  at  the  fourth  churning.  The  butter  globules  in  the  milk  of  the 
first  cows  were  of  uniform  size,  and  all  were  churned  out  at  the 
first  churning ;  where  the  globules  were  of  smaller  size,  subsequent 
churnings  were  necessary. 


Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association. 


66 


At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Tivy's  remarks,  the  committee  on 
nomination  for  officers,  consisting  of  Hon.  John  II.  Morse,  of  Mis- 
souri;  J.  A.  Vance,  of  Illinois;  James  Hirst,  Kansas;  G.  Addy, 
New  York,  and  J.  N.  Poe,  of  Ohio,  having  been  appointed,  re- 
ported that,  inasmuch  as  the  officers  at  the  last  meeting  had  done 
their  duties  faithfully,  and  performed  the  work  devolving  on  them 
with  fidelity  and  success,  they  be  re-elected  by  acclamation.  This 
was  done. 

The  following  resolutions  were  then  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Association  are  hereby  most 
heartily  expressed  to  those  persons  who  have  prepared  papers  and 
delivered  addresses  before  this  body. 

Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Public  Schools  of  the  City  of 
St.  Louis  are  entitled  to  our  thanks  for  giving  us  the  use  of  their 
hall  for  our  meetings. 

Resolved^  That  the  press  of  St.  Louis  are  entitled  to  our  thanks 
for  making  so  good  a  report  of  our  proceedings. 

Resolved,  That  great  credit  is  due  to  Colman's  Rural  World, 
for  calling  into  existence  this  organization,  and  for  so  earnestly 
championing  the  dairy  interests  of  this  portion  of  the  West,  and 
that  we  earnestly  request  every  member  to  become  a  subscriber  of 
that  paper. 

Resolved,  That  the  officers  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and 
Creamery  Association,  and  especially  its  Secretary,  upon  whom 
most  of  the  labor  has  devolved,  have  discharged  their  duties  cour- 
teously and  efficiently,  and  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  members 
of  this  Association. 

Resolved,  That  the  various  railroad  lines,  centering  in  St. 
Louis,  by  granting  return  tickets  at  reduced  rates,  show  their  ap- 
preciation of  the  importance  of  the  dairy  interest,  and  our  thanks 
are  tendered  to  them  for  the  kindness  extended. 

After  which,  the  Association  adjourned,  sine  die,  to  meet  again 
in  St.  Louis  next  January. 


Advertisement. 


CREAMERY. 


The  question  of  Creamery  Butter  is  no  longer  an  experiment,  either  in 
its  quality  as  compared  with  all  other  .butter  made  from  cream,  (to  say 
nothing  of  the  spurious  substitutes,  such  as  Oleomargarine,  Butterine, 
Suine,  etc.)  But  in  point  of  financial  profit,  both  to  the  producer  and  con- 
sumer, the  thousands  of  creameries  that  are  to-daj^  in  operation  attest  the 
truth  of  the  above  statements.  The  creamery  system  of  handling  cream, 
and  manufacturing  it  into  butter,  has  become  one  of  the  principal  manufac- 
turing industries  of  the  entire  country,  from  New  England  to  the  Territories. 
There  is,  perhaps,  no  dairy  section  of  any  considerable  importance,  but  that 
is  awake  to  this  important  branch  of  our  agricultural  industries;  and  about 
the  only  question  with  the  people  is,  what  is  our  surest  plan  of  securing  the 
best  results  from  this  system?  In  many  sections  it  has  been  started  on  a 
small  scale  by  single  individuals,  and  hence,  some  single  localities  in  Iowa 
have  from  thirty  to  fifty  of  these  creameries,  but  this  plan  involves  a  large 
expense  for  skilled  labor,  as  it  requires  an  expert  to  handle  the  cream  in  a 
proper  manner,  as  the  quality,  and  not  the  quantity,  determines  its  market 
value ;  and  besides  this,  each  butter  maker  must,  of  necessity,  be  an  engiueer, 
so  as  to  take  care  of  his  own  machinery,  thus  saving  to  the  institution  the 
expense  of  one  skilled  mechanic.  Onr  system  of  handling  this  business 
obviates,  largely,  this  difficulty,  and  saves  much  to  each  section,  by  center- 
ing the  raw  material  at  one  point,  and  doing  under  one  management  the 
work  often  divided  into  a  score  or  more,  involving  a  much  greater  expense, 
and  necessarily  cutting  down  the  income,  both  to  the  producer  and  the 
manufacturer.  Therefore,  (after  twenty-five  years'  experience  in  the  dairy 
business,  and  ten  years'  experience  in  the  creamery  plan  of  making  butter, 
and  in  three  years'  experience  in  the  working  of  our  system,  known  as  the 
Southwestern  Creamery  Association,  with  nearly  four  hundred  creameries 
organized,  and  many  of  them  built  by  us,  and  the  universal  satisfaction  our 
system  gives  to  the  communities  where  we  have  built,  we  present  our  system 
of  buildings  and  outfit  as  the  only  complete  and  perfect  system  before  the 
public,  and  all  we  ask  is  an  inspection  of  our  buildings  and  machinery,  and 
an  investigation  of  the  working  of  our  system,  and  we  are  satisfied  you  will 
adopt  our  plans.  We  have  adopted  the  stock  company  plan  as  the  best 
means  of  reaching  the  best  results.  The  outfit  we  furnish  has  grown  out  of 
several  years'  experience  in  the  practical  working,  handling  cream  and 
making  butter,  and  at  a  great  expense  in  time  and  money,  we  have  gathered 
together  a  system  of  buildings  and  machinery  just  adapted  to  the  wants 
of  the  business,  and  by  building,  as  we  are,  extensively,  we  are  enabled  to 
furnish  the  outfit  for  less  money  than  any  community  could  for  a  single 
building. 


Advertisement. 


ii 


DAVIS  &  RANKIN, 


-Manufacturers  of  and  Dealers  in- 


iFairlaml)  Cans  §  Creamery  SuddUbs 


55  and  57  N.  Clinton  Street, 


-AND- 


24,  26  and  28  Milwaukee  Ave. 


CHICAGO,  -    -    -  ILLINOIS, 


Are  prepared  to  Furnish  CREAMERY  OUTFITS  Complete, 
and  will  Build,  Furnish  and  Set  in  Running  Order 
a  Creamery  wherever  there  is  any  encouragement 
to  do  so;  if  you  need  a  Creamery  in  your 
Town,  advise  us,  and  we  will  investigate. 


The  Fairlamb  Cans  for  cream  raising  are  constructed  so  as  to  purify 
the  milk — this  is  done  by  cooling  the  center  of  the  milk — the  heat  and  odors 
of  the  milk  go  upward,  and  as  the  top  of  the  milk  is  kept  warm  by  the 
escape  of  heat  from  the  milk,  the  odors  and  impurities  (caused  by  bad  water, 
weeds,  overheating  of  the  cows,  and  many  other  causes)  escape,  leaving 
pure  untainted  cream.  This  is  of  great  importance  to  the  factory,  as  tine 
butter  can  only  be  made  from  pure  cream. 

It  has  been  ascertained  that  the  shaking  up  of  milk  in  carrying  it  to  the 
factory  injures  it  for  cream  raising ;  and  besides,  the  cost  of  transporting 
the  milk  is  many  times  that  of  the  cream.  This  is  the  most  feasible  plan  of 
reaching  large  butter  districts,  rendering  the  grade  uniform,  and  thus  abol- 
ishing the  qualities  of  butter  called  upoor"  and  "grease." 

The  Fairlamb  System  is  the  only  one  by  which  the  dairy  is  paid  for  the 
milk  according  to  its  butter  value.  By  this  plan  the  cream  is  gathered  from 
dairies  by  agents  of  the  creamery  or  factory,  who  account  to  each  dairy  for 
the  number  of  inches  of  cream  taken,  as  measured  by  the  glass  gauge.  After 
being  delivered  to  the  factory,  the  cream  is  stored  until  it  has  acquired  an 
acid,  when  it  is  ready  for  churning. 

The  cans  used  for  hauling  cream  keep  it  from  shaking  or  churning,  and 
may  be  of  any  size,  from  ten  gallons  upward.  During  the  summer  months 
these  cans  are  wrapped  in  woolen  blankets,  and  by  the  application  of  cold 
water  to  the  blankets  the  cream  will  be  kept  cool  and  in  condition. 

The  Fairlamb  Creamery  may  be  run  on  the  co-operative  plan,  the 
same  as  cheese  factories,  or  the  cream  may  be  purchased  by  the  gauge, 
instead  of  taking  milk  by  the  hundred  weight. 

The  cost  of  factory  building,  by  this  method,  with  its  necessary  appli- 
ances, is  50  per  cent,  less  than  the  old  style  creamery,  with  its  expensive 
buildings,  hundreds  of  milk  setters,  etc. 

Cream  may  be  hauled  a  distance  of  twenty -four  miles  by  wagon  without 
sustaining  any  injury,  and  by  rail  a  much  greater  distance.  So  it  is  possible 
for  a  factory  to  take  cream  from  a  greater  number  of  cows  than  by  any 
other  system. 

Cheese  factories  may  make  butter  by  adding  to  the  factory  a  churn  and 
butter  worker;  the  cans  and  cream  being  used  same  as  f  or  regulary  creamery. 


Address:  DAVIS  &  RANKIN,  Chicago,  Ills. 


iii 


Advertisement. 


ml  ONONDAGA  F.  F. 
!   Dairy  and  Table  SALT. 

The  Purest,  Strongest,  Best  and  Cheapest  Salt  Made. 
WARRANTED  as  Pure  as  any  Salt   in  the  Market. 


A Triumphant  Everywhere.  It  triumphed  at  Buffalo  in 
1867,  securing  25  of  the  30  tubs  of  butter  declared  best  by 

Lthe  judges.  It  signally  triumphed  in  1875,  in  the  tests  made 
by  the  Butter  and  Cheese  Exchange.    It  gradually  triumphed 

Tat  the  Milwaukee  Grand  Union  Dairy  Fair  in  1883,  taking  all 
the  Leading  Premiums  and  Sweepstakes  but  one  {tying 
its  rival  on  that)  and  winning  46  out  of  89  premiums  over 
4  foreign  competitors.  It  is  the  Winning  Salt,  and  it  is 
American.  Americans  should  be  proud  of  it.  Manufactured 
solely  by  the  AMERICAN  DAIRY  SALT  CO.,  L.  For  further 
information,  address 


J.  W.  BARKER,  Sec'y,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 


The  Leading  Agricultural  Journal  of  the  West, 

37  YEARS  ESTABLISHED. 

Devotefl  to  Every  Department  of  FARMING ! ! 


Special  attention  is  given  to  the  Dairy  and  Creamery  interest.  Every 
issue  contains  articles  of  great  importance  to  those  owning  Milch  Cows; 
the  matter  of  Proper  Feed  for  Summer  and  Winter,  Breeds,  Milking, 
Shelter,  Care  and  Attention,  will  receive  proper  attention. 

The  Creamery  System  of  Butter  Making  will  be  supported  as  being 
the  Best  for  the  Farmer. 

Dairy  Farming  is  one  of  the  needs  of  the  West,  and  the  Rural  World 
will  advocate  it,  and  do  all  it  can  to  make  it  profitable  to  the  Farmer  and 
to  the  Stockholders  of  Creameries. 

THE  RURAL  WORLD  IS  PUBLISHED  EVERY  THURSDAY,  AT 
$1.50  A  YEAR.    Sample  Copies  Free.   Address : 

NORMAN  J.  COLMAN,  Publisher, 


SOO   Olive  Street,    ST.  LOTXIS,  IMIO. 


Advertisement. 


iv 


A.  J.  CHILD, 


GENERAL 


i    i    i  i 


i    i    ■    i     i    i     i  i 


209  Market  Street,  ST.  LOUIS, 


Orders  filled  at  Wholesale   Prices.    Consignments  re- 
ceived AND  HIGHEST  MARKET  PllICES  OBTAINED  FOR 

Butter,  Grain,  Wool,  Hides,  Furs,  and 
All  Kinds  of  Farm  Produce. 


AGENT  FORI. 


ACME  REAPERS  AND  MOWERS  AND  PLOWS, 

INDIANA  CULTIVATORS,  BUGGIES  AND  SPRING  WAGONS, 

JONES'  STOCK  SCALES, 


—AND  A  GENERAL  LINE  OF— 


Farm  Implements,  Fertilizers  and  Fence  Wire. 


V 


Advertisement. 


Chas.  P,  Willard  &  Co, 


-WHOLESALE  DEALERS  IN- 


280,  282  &  284  Michican  St.,  CHICAGO. 


Cheese  Factory  and  Creamery  Outfits,  Cheese  and  Creamery  Vats, 
Cheese  Presses,  Creamery  and  Family  Churns,  Butter  Workers, 
Salt,  Coloring,  Cheese  and  Butter  Cloths,  Butter  Tubs  and 
Boxes,  and  everything  used  in  Cheese  Factory,  Creamery, 
or  Private  Dairy.    Send  for  Free  Copy  of  Catalogue. 


If  you  think  of  buying  a  CENTRIFUGAL  CREAM  SEPARATOR, 

write  us,  or  come  and  see  us.  We  have  both  the  DANISH  WESTON 
and  the  DE  LAVAL  SEPARATORS  in  stock,  and  can  fill  all  orders 
promptly. 

Among  the  recent  additions  to  our  line  of  goods,  to  which  we 
invite  the  inspection  of  all  buyers,  are  the  following  : 

The  Danish  Weston  Centrifugal  Cream  Separator, 
The  De  Laval  Cream  Separator, 

The  Shock  &  Bolander  Testing  Churn, 

The  Fairlamb  Jacketed  Transportation  Can, 
The  Cherry  Jacketed  Cream  Carrying  Can, 
The  Haney  Jacketed  Cream  Can, 
The  Union  Creamery  Vat. 


Also,  a  full  line  of  our  CREAMERY  ENGINES,  that  are  running 
in  more  Creameries  than  any  other  make  of  Engines  in  the  country. 


Jg£sT*If  you  have  not  received  our  new  Spring  Catalogue,  send 
for  it. 


Advertisement. 


vi 


FAIRBANKS  ? 


to) 


SCALES. 


400  Lbs.,  Platform  15x21  inches. 
GOO    *'  u  16x25 

1000    44  "       17x26  " 


IMPROVED  UNION  SCALE. 

Weighing  from  K  oz*.  to  240  lbs., 
with  brass  or  tin  dish,  and  single 
beam. 

Weighing  from  %  oz.  to  245  lbs., 
with  brass  or  tin  dish,  and  double 
beam. 


Creamery    Wagons,    01a.eese     Truuclrs,  Olaeese 
Safes,  Standard  Mieasures,  Eclipse 
Wind    l^Eills,  Etc. 

Fairbanks  &  Co. 

302  and  304  Washington  Ave.,  ST.  LOUIS. 


vii 


Advertisement. 


WHEAT  GROWERS,  ATTENTION 

FOE  CIE,CTJIi 


BM^M  MONEY  I   $    ©JklTE  TIME  I  I 


Pure  Dairy  SALT, 

— MANUKACTI  REI)  RY  TIIK— 


MICHIGAN  DAIRY  SALT  CO. 


This  Salt  is  Manufactured  expressly  far  Dairy,  Creamery  and  Cheese  purposes, 
It  is  Chemically  Pure,  and  admitted  by  Sutter  Makers  to  be  the  best  in  use. 


(Butter  Salted  with  Michigan  (Dairy  Salt  received  First 
and  Second  (premiums  at  the  Great 
St.  Louis  Fair,  1883. 


Chlor.  of  Sodium  (salt),  -  -  -  99  4495 

Insoluble  matter,             -  -  -  -  0627 

Calcium  Sulphate            -  3562 

"     Chloride,            -  -  -  -  1316 

Magnesium  Chloride,       -  -  -  -  Trace 

ct         Sulphate,      -  -  -  -  -   


100  0000 

The  above  Analysis  clearly  shows  that  the  Salt  Manufactured 
by  the  Michigan  Dairy  Salt 'Co.  is  the  Purest  in  the  world,  and 
Best  for  Dairy  and  Table  Use. 

J.  F.  EWING,  Agt., 

105  1ST cr tin.  TlaircL  Street, 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  01 1211 208461 8 

opens,         1 8 8 4 .  CL0SES' 

October  6th.   October  11th. 

Premiums  $50,000.00  Cash  ! 


ENTRIES  FREE  •     SPACE  FREE  !  !     POWER  FREE  !  !  ! 


-^24  +  Separate  +  Departments. 


Horse  Department, 
Cattle 

Sheep  " 
Swine  " 
onltry  ik 
Vegetable  and  Fruit  Department, 
Apiarf  Department. 
Agricultural  Department, 
Agricultural  Implement  Depart'nt, 
Machinery  Department, 
Mechanical  " 

ZOOLOGICAL 


Produce  Department, 

Household  " 

Wine  and  Beer  Department. 

Textile  Department, 

Dry  Goods  Department, 

Carpet 

Cotton 

Geological  " 
Mineral 

Chemical  " 
Natural  History  Department, 
GAKDENS  and 


DAIRY  DEPARTMENT 


The  Mississippi  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Association  will 
co-operate  with  the  Management  of  the  Great  St.  Louis  Fair  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  Dairy  Department  a  Grand  National  Expo- 
sition of  All  Dairy  Products,  Implements  and  Supplies.  A  Large 
Hall  has  been  allotted  for  the  display,  and  it  is  the  intention  that  every 
article  pertaining  to  the  dairy  interest  will  be  represented. 

For  particulars  and  Premium  List,  address. 

FE&TUS  J.  WADE,  Se<  \. 

St.  Louis  Fair  Association  , 

i.  W.  SHEPPARD,  SEC-Y.       718  Che8tmU  St' '  ST'  L°UIS'  M"' 

Miss'i  Valley  Dairy  and  Creamery  Ass'n. 
GOO  Olive  St..  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


